Bloodstained Gallery
by Pink Crystalline Roses
Summary: Two different worlds. Two different galleries. One mysterious painting. Who knows? Visiting the new Art Gallery in Academia will turn everything upside down when a certain painting is not to be missed by two of the visitors. Will they escape from the demented gallery? (Hope x OC, Noel x Serah)
1. Chapter 1:The Demented Gallery

**A/N: This is like a prototype of the story, so if you think of anything, just tell me. ConCrits are welcome.**

**Imagine this is a more violent and gorier version of Ib. Not the over-the-top gore, but this fic includes combat inside with... anything who knows what. I'll make all references of Ib into more of a bloody mess.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Ib. What I own is only my Original Characters and story.**

* * *

Hope was trying to look around for someone that can help him explain all the paintings inside the gallery. He had a day off so he can get some sightseeing in the newly-built museum at Academia's Grand Avenue.

Navigating around the museum was rather confusing, so why wouldn't he look for a guide?

Miserably, he can't find anyone around here. He spotted a woman around her early twenties wearing a black suit standing next to a painting of a hung man. Thinking for a while, he thought that the green-eyed woman was a guide and he approached her.

"Excuse me, miss, are you a guide?" he asked her as soon as he got near her. "Oh, you must be the Academy's director. And you're right, I'm a guide here, can you tell me what your problem is?" she asked in a polite way. "I need someone to guide me around the gallery, it seems like navigating around was rather confusing." He replied. "Alright. I'll start from this one over here." The woman said and motioned to the painting beside her.

"And may I know what your name is?"

"Ayla Stargazer, at your service."

* * *

Lightning walked around the gallery with her sister beside her.

"What are you looking for, Serah?" she asked in an almost bored tone to her eighteen year-old sister. Serah gave a smile. "Oh, I'm just looking for the painting that my friends in class admired. The title is..." she stopped for a while to remember it. "Ah! It's 'The Geometric Fish'!"

She ran off in front of her and started looking for the painting. "There it is!" Serah pointed to a certain painting nailed on the wall. "I don't expect it to be grayscale... but it's creative otherwise!" then she started to examine the painting. "I liked the combination of angles in this one... and the creative use of shading." She uttered.

"Well, it's a bit unlike you to examine anything about art." The older Farron said. "I know you liked history more."

"That's true, but... I actually liked a bit of art." Serah replied a bit sheepishly. "Shall we head on?" Lightning asked again and her sister nodded.

"Yeah."

* * *

"Hey Fang, let's check this out over here." Vanille said and dragged her friend to a painting. "'Selfless Guard'. What does that mean?" Fang asked upon reading the plate.

"I don't know, maybe we can ask the artist if he's still alive." She joked and they both laughed. Both saw a man standing beside them, observing the painting of a beautiful, smiling woman in an elegant red dress. "She really _is _beautiful," he said and lowered his head to look at the plate. "'The Lady in Red'. I really wished that she was real, I want to see her smile myself." He finished in a monotone voice.

Vanille tilted her head in confusion at his manners. She too observed the 'Lady in Red' painting and admitted that it was indeed beautiful, but something was odd.

She could have sworn that a bit of the painting moved and the smile turned rather... crazed. Shaking her head off any disturbing thoughts, she looked away from the painting. _No way, _she said to herself. _No way that the painting moved. Maybe I'm hallucinating._

"Hey Vanille!"

The shout snapped her back to reality. "You okay there?" Fang said while snapping her fingers in front of Vanille's face. "Fang, am I hallucinating?" she asked all of a sudden. The woman in question made a confused look, "No way." She said.

"I could have sworn that the 'Lady in Red' painting moved!" she exclaimed rather loudly and attracted the attention of nearby visitors. "Shh, you're attracting the others." Fang reminded. "Okay Fang, so I saw this. I saw that the Lady blinked and her smile turned rather crazed." Vanille explained.

"Maybe it's just you as usual." Fang said. "Let's just go before anything happened."

The two left the man and the Lady in Red painting as quickly as possible. Just like Vanille said, the painting shifted a bit and the smile of the Lady turned crazed.

* * *

Lightning had let Serah skip ahead on her own. The younger Farron was now looking around for something that she couldn't have missed. She spotted a painting soon enough and examined it, "The 'Misshapen Diamond'. Wow, it's actually a really good painting." She said with a nod.

When she was about to turn around, she noticed something in the corner of her eyes. She suspected it as the diamond painting. _Am I seeing things? _She thought and tilted her head to the side. _I think I saw that the diamond just glinted. Glinted like the way when you shine it with a flashlight._

"Stupid me." She said while bopping her fist to her own head. "I must be kind of hallucinating. I gotta go." She ran; leaving the painting that mysteriously glinted the second time, but no one notices the oddity.

Realizing that she must go to the bathroom, she looked around and found one by the painting of a lady in a red dress. Serah skidded to a halt, stopping right in front of the painting when she saw the look on the woman's face.

Blinking rapidly to make sure that she isn't imagining anything, the younger Farron examined the painting once again and squinted her eyes to see well.

_Blink._

She widened her eyes, horrified, and forgot anything at the moment. _T-The Lady in Red painting just blinked! _She thought in panic, and didn't realize herself staring at the large frame. People glanced at her weirdly, thinking that she was insane of some sorts.

Serah continued staring at the painting and something even scarier happened. The beautiful smile on the lady's face widened into a maniacal, crazed grin and a trail of blood red liquid started to leak from the corner of her lips.

"No," she gasped in horror at the painting. "It can't be! No!"

When she was about to let out a terrified scream, the world reversed back to the original gallery, and so did the Lady in Red's expression. "Lightning," the words escaped her. "I have to get Lightning!"

Serah then ran away from the painting quickly, with people glancing weirdly at her.

* * *

Ayla had started to describe the paintings around a while ago. The two arrived to a painting of a woman in blue dress, whom was smiling beautifully.

"She's the 'Lady in Blue', as depicted by the artist." She explained, and the director stared at the painting with some kind of indescribable expression on his face. "Did the 'Lady in Blue' just blinked?" he said in confusion.

"What?" she replied and examined the painting as well. She didn't see the blink, but another disturbing sight was that cracks had started to form around the frame and dark blue liquid begun to leak from each of the cracks.

"No, the lady didn't blink." She replied with a rather confused look on her face. The walls cracking and blue liquid oozing from the cracks? No way, it would be her imagination. Simply an imagination.

She traced the golden frame with her fingertips, "But there are cracks in the wall surrounding the frame. Blue liquid leaked from the cracks." She said semiconsciously. "I don't see any cracks." He said, also examining the painting closer.

"We should... move on before anything happened." He said quickly. "Alright." Ayla replied and they left the mysterious painting. Cracking sounds are heard again and blue liquid dripped to the marble floor shortly after.

* * *

Fang and Vanille are rounding a corner into a quiet hallway with paintings inside. The two had started to look for some more paintings before leaving the gallery. The orange-haired girl had refused to return to the Lady in Red painting after what she had seen.

_What in the world that Vanille saw? _Fang wondered while examining a painting titled 'Couplet Towers'. She had found that the conditions in the museum rather... unsettling.

About what her younger friend had told her, she also started to see strange things. Like for example, when they passed the 'Misshapen Diamond' painting, she thought that the diamond had gleamed at least once. But she shrugged it off anyway and continued walking through the hallway.

"Fang, I'm scared." Vanille said and scooted closer to her. "No, it's okay. We'll get out of here as soon as possible in case of anything." Fang replied and looked around her surroundings. Why hadn't people visited this part of gallery yet?

Throughout the hallway, the paintings became lesser and lesser, until at the end of the hallway there are no paintings left. The two proceeded and found another hallway, but this time there was a single painting on the wall.

The size was impressive; it had a hallway dedicated to itself. The two examined the painting in the golden frame and found that something was amiss.

It was the picture of a gallery with paintings. Fang looked at all the paintings that were displayed inside the large frame, and found that the whole thing was just too accurate. No, too accurate for her liking.

Albeit the gallery pictured inside was much darker.

Vanille slightly bent to read the golden plate beneath the frame, "It's called... Fa—Fab-Fabricated... World."

As soon as she said the words, the lights flickered. "W-What was that?!" she stammered and took her hands off the frame. Fang realized the situation they both were in. "Vanille," she panted, a bead of sweat rolling down her temples. "Vanille, we have to go now!"

She grabbed her friend's wrist and broke off into a sprint through the previous hallway. "Fang, what happened?" Vanille asked on the way back to the gallery's center. "I don't know! We really have to go!" she replied and ran faster through the now-dark hallway.

The two arrived at the gallery's center to find it devoid of any people. "Where's everyone?" Vanille asked, terrified of the conditions around her. Meowing sounds echoed to the hallway, which made the two huddle closer. "What was that?" Fang semiconsciously said. "I-I don't know." Vanille replied.

The two proceeded into the dark gallery when someone bumped into Fang and knocked her to the floor. "What the hell?" she cursed and stood up. The person that bumped into her was a pink-haired woman around her age who was dusting her shirt. "You are?" Fang asked again and the pink-haired woman nodded slightly, "Lightning." Lightning replied.

"Uh, I'm Vanille and this is Fang." Vanille said and gave Lightning a smile. Lightning nodded in acknowledgement, "Have you seen someone who looks like me but shorter and around her eighteens?" she questioned with a spark of worry in her voice. "No, but I guess we can look for her together." Fang replied.

"Alright. She's my sister. I shouldn't have let her go around by herself." Lightning said again and the three proceeded into the dark gallery, with the meowing sounds echoing in the background.

* * *

"Lightning!"

Serah yelled countless times to her sister. It was stupid for her to wander off on her own, and now she was stuck in a dark corridor.

The gallery's lights had suddenly turned off. She heard rather unsettling noises in the background, including coughing voices that seemingly are sounding from one of the paintings. But she shrugged it off and proceeded into the gallery on her own, of course.

After sometime, she had started to cry. No, she has to find Lightning! She has to meet her sister again!

Wiping the tears away, she rushed down the hallway and a sentence scribbled in a messy handwriting with red liquid appeared on the walls.

_Come, come..._

"Come to where?" Serah questioned nobody in particular. She followed what the sentence said and went down the hallway, and more of the sentences appeared on her left and right, and she read every single one of them.

_That's right, come... and I'll show you something..._

She found a door at the end of the hallway. The writing appeared again, but this time beneath her feet. She read it carefully and nodded. Bracing herself, her hands gripped the doorknob and pushed it, opening the wooden door.

The room was empty.

A lone, wooden table sat at the room's center with a rose sculpture on it. Right in front of the sculpture was a lone pink rose sitting in a vase devoid of any water. The petals of the rose are gone, and only three are left. The rose was slowly wilting. Next to the rose were a memo and a pen.

She quickly took both objects and pocketed them. A messy handwriting appeared on the floor beneath her feet. She read it and hesitantly took the pink rose. Some of the thorns had pricked her finger, but then the wounds disappeared and another handwriting appeared on the wall.

"When the rose wilts, you too will rot away." Serah read aloud. Another sentence appeared on the opposite wall. "You and the rose are unified. Know the weight of your life." Realization dawned upon her when she realized something. "T-That means... if the rose wilts, then I'll... I'll..."

Die.

Panicked, she tried to remember something. She remembered that there was a vase sitting on a small desk at the hallway where she originated from, and she swung the door open and ran outside to find the vase.

She has to make it quick, if not, her life would end instead.


	2. Chapter 2:The Violet Rose

**A/N: My replies:**

**~ sakuraorihimeetc: Thanks for the compliment and for liking this story! I'll add more of her in later chaps.**

**Ah, rather than getting confused, I'll now label the teams. Maybe they will split up in later chapters.**

**Team One: Hope and Ayla**

**Team Two: Serah**

**Team Three: Lightning, Fang and Vanille**

**Okay, on to the next chapter of Bloodstained Gallery.**

* * *

_- Team One's POV -_

The lights are out all of a sudden and all people in the gallery seemingly disappeared.

"Wait, where are the people?" Hope said while looking around for someone—anyone. "They just disappeared." Ayla added. "And why the lights are out?"

"Maybe we should explore some more." He suggested and she agreed wordlessly. The two proceeded into the dark gallery and when passing by a painting, a coughing voice sounded. "Hello? Anyone here?" she asked nobody in particular. She frowned a bit and retreated to where the painting was, and it was literally coughing. "'The Coughing Man' just coughed." Hope realized.

The gallery was creepily alive.

"Come on." Ayla said and walked further until her feet hit something solid. It was a crowbar lying on the ground. "Might be useful." He said. Ayla kept it and they proceeded until they reached a painting. "It's titled 'Abyss of the Deep'." She said. Somehow, the waters inside the painting rippled and the giant eel in the picture was seemingly alive. Out of nowhere, the two was dragged into the painting and appeared somewhere.

They popped out in a new location through another painting with Ayla landing on top of poor Hope and the crowbar clattering beside them. Blushing a bit, she quickly rolled away from him and grabbed the crowbar, before blurting out a sheepish, "Eh, I-I'm sorry director! I didn't mean to!"

He dusted his jacket and stood up. "Uh... that's okay."

Trying to forget the embarrassing 'incident', the former walked to the corridor's end to find a memo and a pen. "I guess we should keep it." Hope said and pocketed the two objects, and opening the door in front of them.

It was an empty room with a small wooden table in the center with a rather small violet rose sculpture and a vase on it. Inside the vase was a lone violet rose, its petals dried with only three petals that remained on the stalk. To their shock, words in crimson substance appeared beneath the painting of a smiling woman.

_Come, take the rose. Claim it as yours._

Ayla approached the flower hesitantly and picked it up. Nothing happened.

Huffing in relief, she spotted a blue key lying underneath the painting. She grabbed it and was about to leave the room when she felt eyes on her. With shaking hands, she raised the crowbar and spun around, only to find that the woman in the painting snapped her eyes open and gave her a sickening smile. Almost screaming, the two left the room and slammed the door behind them. "What the heck was that?" she asked nervously.

"The gallery's... alive." Hope replied, also a bit shocked upon seeing the painting's expression changed. "Let's see... when will we use this?" she said while raising the odd blue key to her eye level. "Let's find the door first." He replied.

Before they could take a step forwards, one of the rose's petals fell down to the floor.

Ayla let out a pained cry when a bit of her suit tore and a gash formed on her upper left arm. "What did... what just happened?"

"The rose!" Hope exclaimed, pointing at the violet rose in her grasp. "We have to heal it, or else you'll..." Words appeared in the wall in front of him.

_Die._

"That's a rather creepy death threat..." she uttered. His eyes caught something and he rushed to pick something up and handed it to her. It was a vase filled with cold water. She put the rose in the water and the rose magically restored its petals. There were a total of eight violet petals and the water ran out immediately. To their horror, a writing in red appeared on her floor.

_HFITE!_

"What word is that?" Ayla raised an eyebrow in confusion at the jumbled word. "It says 'THEIF!'." Hope translated. The two walked further and more of the words appeared on their left and right. Just more and more of those writing to haunt them both.

_Return the rose, THEIF! THEIF!_

Both found a door and Ayla unlocked it with the blue key. She was about to step in when Hope grabbed her wrist and pulled her back before she fell down into a large hole on the floor. "Careful," he said, dragging her to a safe-zone. She nodded a 'thanks' back. "Eh... I owe you." She said rather sheepishly. Ignoring the room, they walked down the narrow hallway when words in light blue fluid appeared on the floor;

_Beware of the Edges._

Thinking that this was an 'important note', they walked in the middle when a black, clawed had shot out from the plaster, trying to take hold of the rose. One of them almost tore a petal off and Ayla clutched it close to her chest, preventing the claws from reaching the precious flower. Once they reached the end of the hallway, Hope almost stepped on something.

"Please don't!"

A rather squeaky voice but eerie at the same time sounded. "Director, lift your foot. There's something there." She said and he obeyed. He almost stepped on a little white ant. The two kneeled to see the ant better. "Thank you for not stepping on me!" it said again.

"Did it just talk?" she said in confusion. "Apparently." He replied.

"I loved all paintings here, especially mine. Mine's like really super cool, you know!" it said. The two gave each other a confused glance. "Your painting?" Hope asked again. "Yeah, it's there before the arm-hall." The ant replied. "Do you mind if we... uh, borrow your painting for a while?" Ayla questioned again and the ant replied, "Yeah, just make sure you don't break it!"

They ran back to the 'arm-hall' just like the ant said, and there was a painting of a white ant large enough to cover the hole. They took it off the wall and put it over the hole. "This won't last. Only one person can cross and go back here." Hope explained.

Ayla readied the crowbar. "Well I'll go." She said and set one foot on the fragile painting. "Just... be careful." He said again and she nodded back. The painting creaked, but it didn't tear off completely. She reached the door and opened it, finding a headless statue inside. "I bet it moves." She said and looked around to find a green key in the floor in front of it.

Clutching the rose in one hand and the crowbar in the other, Ayla took cautious steps to the statue and snatched the key, holding it together with the rose and walking to the door. Then the statue started to walk towards her to her horror. Then it let out a growl, now chasing her. She managed to swing the crowbar across its head and dark blue liquid spilled to the floor, but it didn't break.

Panicked, she opened the door and slammed it behind her and crossing the painting carefully. It snapped in the middle and she started to panic more when the door swung open and out came the headless statue. She tossed the crowbar to the other side and jumped, in time for the statue to step on the painting and reaching out its obsidian arms to her.

The painting snapped and broke into two, sending the statue plummeting down and down below until a crash resonated. "That was close." She sighed in relief and pocketed the key. "What is that?" Hope asked as soon as he got to her. "It's a headless statue I found inside the room. We have to be more careful." Ayla replied and left the room.

"What should we tell that ant?" she questioned again across the 'arm-hall'. "Say something nice, and put up a smile. It always worked." He replied past the clawed arms that kept appearing from the wallpaper. They met the white end on the way. Both forced a smile on their face as Hope spoke up, "Thanks for lending us your painting. We've returned it now."

"Ah, your welcome!" the ant replied and left the two. "Wait." Ayla said and went back to the start of the arm-hall and returned shortly after. "What did you do?" he asked on the way to another door. "Uh... I left a note. I wrote 'Be careful of hands from the walls. Keep your rose safe, and walk at the middle. Museum guide Ayla and Director Hope went this way.'."

"In case someone looks for us." She finished. He nodded in confirmation and followed her through the dark hallway. Ayla unlocked the door and opened it; the first thing they saw was a large painting of a cat with a fish-shaped hole on its nose.

Deciding where to go first, the duo proceeded left and found a room with curtains on the wall, apparently hiding something. A stick figure appeared and a sentence scribbled on the floor with yellow fluid appeared.

_Play hide and seek?_

The stick figure disappeared and both jumped back in shock. Buttons appeared under each curtain, prompting them to press it. "Let's give it a try." She said and went to one of the buttons, pressed it and revealed the painting of a moon. The room became pitch-black soon after. "Not this." She said and pressed it again, and the room lit up once again.

They walked to another and pressed the button, revealing a musical note with 'Off' written across it. The room became deathly silent. "Not that too." Hope said and tried another, while Ayla pressed the previous button again to return the voices.

She followed him and the next button revealed a blade. It popped out of the painting and delivered a slash, cutting off a petal from the stalk. A gash appeared on Ayla's right cheek. "That hurt." She commented and followed Hope to another painting. He pressed the button.

The next picture was quite shocking and rather... indescribable. A scream echoed across the room and the painting bursts out, slapping both of them and cutting off another petal from the violet rose. Hope rubbed his cheek in pain, a red handprint visible on it while Ayla had a bruise on her other cheek. "That also hurt..." she commented again, trying to remove the painting from her head.

A giggle sounded from one of the curtains. The two rushed to it and pressed the button, revealing the stick figure. A sentence appeared again beside the stick figure;

_Found me! You got a prize._

A 'clunk' sounded and it was a wooden fish-head. Hope pocketed it and the two returned, this time to the right pathway. There was a room filled with those eerie headless statues and mannequin heads. A rose painting was nailed to the wall and yellow liquid dripped from the ceiling. Ayla put her rose in a vase and the lost petals bloomed again.

One of the heads shifted. It then started moving towards the two, but it miserably broke into pieces on the way and out came a wooden fish-tail.

They returned to the cat painting and inserted the fish pieces into the hole. A meow sounded and the cat's eyes opened, revealing a hallway. They entered the painting and saw a black painting with a red face on it, wiggling its tongue at them.

When they were about to pass, the painting spat at them, but thankfully the spit didn't hit any of them. They walked to the right and found some blue dolls hanging from the ceiling in a narrow pathway. One of them fell from the ceiling and Ayla almost let out a terrified scream, but then reminded herself that those were only dolls.

They spotted a door with a yellow writing beside it; it reads 'The Liar's Room'.

Six paintings with different colors are seen inside the room. Each of them had a statement under the frame. They read it carefully and thought for a while, trying to find which the truth-speaker is. "If 'Blue' said that the only truth-speaker wears green, then it's a lie." Hope started. "If 'Red' said that it agrees with 'Yellow', and 'Yellow' agrees to 'White', then it's a lie as well." Ayla finished.

"Then the truth-speaker must be 'Brown'." He concluded and memorized the writing under 'Brown's' frame. Then he opened the door and they went inside. "You solved the previous puzzle. Now take a break and let me finish it." He said and went to stand in front of the statue.

"East four steps. North two steps." He mumbled and found a loose tile. He turned the tile over and saw something under it. "Number four." He said. "What does this mean?"

"We have to solve another puzzle." She replied and both left the room, only to see a gruesome sight.

Somehow, the 'Brown's' painting had been shredded and blood red liquid flowed from the shredded pieces of paper, with the other colors holding bloodstained knives on their hands and some blood clung to the golden frame, and the plate beneath the painting reads 'Liar!'

"I'm really sorry, but thank you for not being a liar, 'Brown'." Hope said and left the room, passing the same hallway with the hanging dolls. A new one fell right in front of his face and he backed away from it. He noticed something green and found the number eighteen on its neck. "Four and eighteen. Gotta remember it." Ayla said to herself.

They found a door with the writing, 'X x X + X= ?'

"We have to find one more number." He said. They looked around for a while, and found a blank white painting. They spotted the number nine on its center. The two returned and counted the sums, which made it one hundred and sixty-six. The door opened and they gawked at what was inside.

"What the..."

* * *

**A/N: You can find the hint of 'something' in this chapter. Just keep up and stay tuned for later updates of this story!**

**~ Crystal**


	3. Chapter 3:Loves Me, Loves Me Not

**A/N: Well now, there's a bit gore of some sorts in this chapter... and there will be someone who will join the group throughout the gallery. You'll see the person in the chapter's end.**

The room was filled with nothing but apple tree sculptures.

"Oh, good. You mean we went all this far to find... apple trees?" Ayla said in confusion. "Well, but there's something we might take." Hope gave a reason and grabbed a red wooden apple from one of the trees. The two returned to the pathway that they haven't taken and a red writing appeared on the floor;

_Beware of Lips._

"Lips? What kind of—"he said and turned his head to the opposite wall to see a large painting depicting a set of red lips. "Lips." Ayla finished and shrugged. "It's blocking the path. Let's give that painting a try." He suggested and approached the painting. "Hello?"

A forked tongue came out of the set of lips and licked it as if hungry. "Me hungry... Give me food." It said. "We don't have any." Ayla replied and readied the crowbar in case of anything. "You no pass." The painting replied. When both was about to turn away, the painting spoke up again, "That rose?" it said. "Y-Yes." She replied nervously.

The lips licked itself again, before forming a grin, baring its razor sharp teeth. "Me love rose. Give that." Then the tongue started slithering and tried to snatch the purple rose from Ayla's grasp. "No!" she yelled and whacked the tongue with the crowbar, drawing blood red paint from its forked tips. "Me hungry! Give food! Give it to me! GIVE ROSE TO ME!" It screeched and tried to snatch the flower again.

"Here!" Ayla tossed the crowbar to Hope who caught it and whacked the tongue once again, drawing a shrilling shriek from it. "GIVE ROSE! GIVE ROSE TO ME!" It screeched again and again, resulting in more hits from the crowbar. Ayla remembered something.

"Director! The wooden apple, give it to the lips!" she yelled while evading the tongue. Hope took the apple out of his pocket and waved it at the painting, "Hey lips! You want some food?"

The painting drew back its tongue. "That food?"

"Yes. You want it?" the painting formed another grin. "Me say me want food." It replied. Hope hesitantly tossed the apple into the lips and sounds of wood crunching are heard shortly after when the lips munched on the apple. It let out a belch, to which the two grimaced at it.

"Yummy... Me no hungry again. You pass." It said and opened ridiculously wide enough for the two to pass through it. They walked carefully on the tongue as not to get pierced by the sharp teeth. They reached a room with a painting of guillotines. "Oh no..." both uttered at the same time. They walked cautiously through the room. They saw a bladeless guillotine at the room's end.

Frowning, Ayla walked through the guillotine without realizing the serious danger she was in. Hope caught a large blade falling slowly through the ceiling. "Watch out!" he yelled and tackled her to the floor in time for the large blade to hit the floor with a crunch. She widened her eyes at the blade before it rose again slowly.

"I owe you twice now." She said and helped him go back to his feet before proceeding into the next room. They found a hallway with a painting of the 'Lady in Red' on the wall. Both ignored the painting and tried to open the door when a crash and a growl sounded.

The Lady in Red crept out of the painting and dragged the frame behind her. Seeing the two, it let out a shriek and crawled quickly to them. Before the Lady can reach them, Hope swung the crowbar across the painting's face and drew out red liquid from her forehead, leaving her writhing in pain. They rounded the Lady and grabbed a fallen red key, unlocking the door and slamming it shut behind them with the lady roaring and banging at the door.

He took out the note and wrote something on it. "What did you write?" Ayla questioned once the banging stopped. "Director Hope and museum guide Ayla went this way." He replied and stuck it on the wall. "If the Lady had a weakness... then it's that the Lady can't open doors on her own." She said again.

"But they move fast." He added. "And is this some kind of library?"

A bookshelf is in the room's corner. Ayla tried to open the door beside it but it just won't budge. A book fell from the shelf and she picked it up. "Carrie Careless and the Gallet des Rois." She read the title and read it. Hope followed reading it beside her.

The storybook was crudely drawn in crayon. It was the story of the birthday of a young girl named Carrie, and her friends were celebrating her birthday by making her a Gallet des Rois, a cake with a small prize inside it. Carrie swallows something hard in her slice and her friends brushed it off as the prize.

Carrie's mother was looking for a key to her study, saying that it was always in the side table. Her friends saw that what Carrie swallowed was the key, not the supposed prize. One of her friends grabbed the knife that was used to cut the cake and stabbed Carrie to death, before tearing open her stomach to get the key. The last page shown a picture of Carrie's mutilated corpse and her murderer-friend, covered in blood and saying, "I found the keeey, now open the door!"

Not wanting to read the book any further, Ayla closed it and placed it back on the shelf. A click sounded from the door. Hope tried to open it and it worked, revealing a room with a vase and a painting, along with a small desk. She checked her rose and found that it was partially wilted. She dipped the rose into the vase and the water did not run out.

"The painting's title was 'Eternal Blessing'. It does fit." Hope said and left another note with an arrow pointing to the left on it. They went to the left door and into another hallway, disappearing in the shadows.

_Meanwhile..._

Serah clutched her rose tight in her hands and went through the door. She found a painting of a red face that kept wiggling its tongue. Grimacing, she dared to walk to the left when the painting spat at her, and it hurt. A flower petal fell to the floor and she frowned. The spit felt like acid.

She walked to the end of the corridor and found an empty wall. Something solid hit her feet on the way to a door. It was a red wooden apple. Shrugging, she grabbed it and went to the right, not forgetting to crawl on her knees beneath the spitting painting to avoid getting hit again.

Serah's eyes widened when she saw a set of lips on the corridor's end, blocking her way. "Whatever that is, it must be bad." She said and dared to walk to the painting.

"Ah, pretty girl. You have food?" it said, making her jump back in shock. "Two people go here. They fed me. If you no have food—"the painting cut itself. Serah, being the smart girl she was, offered the wooden apple to the painting. "Apple again?" it questioned. "Sorry lips, but I only have this." She said. "Me want other food." It said again.

"You don't want this?" she raised an eyebrow at it. "Fine." Serah hissed and began to leave the painting. "Wait, me want food. You can give that." It said and opened wide. She hesitantly tossed the apple into the mouth and the painting ate it. "Yummy. You pass." It opened wide for her to go through. Slightly disgusted, she went through it and into a room with guillotines.

She walked through all of them and walked quickly pass the last guillotine, in time for the blade to smash to the floor. She ignored it and walked to find an empty wall. She walked to the left and entered a small library of some sorts. The door was unlocked and she opened it, revealing a room with a vase and a painting.

Sighing in relief, Serah dipped her rose and the lost petals bloomed again. She was at a critical level at the time, her rose was slowly wilting and only two were left out of seven. Luckily the water did not run out after she spotted that water was slowly dripping into it from the ceiling.

She spotted a note on the wall and snatched it. "Director Hope and museum guide Ayla went this way." She read aloud and turned her head to a door on her right. "Someone was here. I knew that! I wasn't alone!" she said and almost jumped thrillingly at it. She then decided to go to the right door, not forgetting to leave a note with the writing,

_Dear Lightning,_

_I really wish that you had read this note. It's me, I swear.  
If you want to follow me, go through the right door.  
I'll be waiting for you._

Love always,

_Serah_

Serah then made her way through a dim corridor and found someone lying on the floor. She quickly rushed by the person's side and cast a worried glance on him.

It was a brunette young man about her age. All over his body were bruises, gashes and smaller cuts. "Hey, hey wake up." She said while shaking the person's body. He stirred a bit and let out a pained moan and stopped moving again.

Frowning, Serah grabbed something from the brunette's hand and it was a small key. She heard voices of a low cackle sounding from the door nearby, and a hoarse voice saying, _"He loves me. He loves me not." _A bit curious, she unlocked the door and opened it, and saw blue rose petals on the floor. She instantly covered her mouth with her hands when she saw the Lady in Blue at the room's furthermost end.

"He loves me. He loves me not."The lady said while plucking the petals of a blue rose, and tossed each plucked petal into her mouth and eating it. A trail of dark blue liquid was going down her chin and dripping to her blue gown. "He loves_—_"the Lady in Blue was about to pluck the third-to-last petal when she noticed Serah standing on the doorway.

Dropping the rose on the floor, the lady shrieked and started crawling towards her. Serah let out a terrified scream and slammed the door behind her, the lady banging on it. The banging stopped all of a sudden and Serah backed away from the door.

CRASH!

The lady shattered the window beside her and leaped into the hallway, crawling quicker to her and a trail of dark blue painting appeared behind the lady as she crawled. Serah opened the door and slammed it shut again, grabbing the blue rose and spotted a broken hoe of some sorts and grabbed it.

She opened the door and instantly whacked the hoe to the Lady in Blue's face and knocked the painting a few steps back. "Give me that flower!"the lady shrieked and tried to snatch the blue rose when Serah whacked her again, this time at the back of her head and that slammed the lady's face to the floor. With a battle-cry, Serah whacked the lady's head repeatedly, spraying blue liquid to the walls and the floor.

The lady's supposed skull cracked like an eggshell and blue liquid flowed from the corpse. Serah tested the liquid on her fingertips and sniffed it, "Paint. I'm not supposed to be scared, these aren't blood. Just paint." She said to herself.

She spotted a vase and dipped the blue rose inside, which bloomed magically back into ten petals. She herself admired the flower; it was a light blue with light green leaves. She returned to the person and noticed that his wounds were gone. "Wake up." She said and gently shook the person. He let out a groan and stirred.

"Huh?" he uttered. "It doesn't hurt again..." he raised his head and widened his dark blue eyes in shock at her sight and backed off from her, "No! Don't touch me, I've got nothing left!"

Serah showed the blue rose to the person. "Is this yours?"

The brunette nodded and grabbed the rose from her. "Thanks." He said, managing to give her a smile. "Your name?" she asked again. "Noel. Noel Kreiss." Noel replied and extended a hand to her, which she accepted. "I'm Serah, Serah Farron."

"I thought there's no one else here." he said again and stood up. "Well, I went here with my sister." Serah said while walking side-by-side to the hall. "I wandered off and we got separated."

"Well, it's a miracle you survived this gallery for so long." He said with a chuckle. The two went deeper into the hallway and disappeared in the shadows as well.

**A/N: Some crazy speaking painting...**

**The person turns out to be Noel, though. I'll try to write the next chapter about Team Three. And noe Team Two consists of Noel and Serah. Be patient for the next update. And don't forget to read and review.**

**~ Crystal**


	4. Chapter 4:Hallucinations

**A/N: Some of the storyline here never existed in the actual game of Ib.**

* * *

_- Team Three's POV -_

The museum had become eerier the deeper they went.

Lightning twirled the red rose in her hands and walked at the group's lead. Vanille and Fang are always walking behind her in case of anything. The three had ever stumbled upon a painting titled 'The Piercing Gaze' and the picture had made Vanille scream.

Whatever it is, 'The Piercing Gaze' somehow didn't disturb her, but she saw a pair of dark blue eyes resembling Serah's in the frame instead of glowing red eyes like what Vanille said. Somehow the paintings had disturbed her, whether it was real or simply a figment of her imagination, it always depicts her little sister.

Even Fang and Vanille had caught her staring at a painting with a shocked expression.

It was nothing more than a painting—however, it was ultimately disturbing. It was a painting of Serah hanging upside down by her foot on a rope, facing away from her but certainly she could see that her sister's body was tattered and bloodied, indicating the Serah in this picture is dead. The painting does not have a golden plate beneath the frame, unlike the others.

'Disturbing Painting' is how Lightning dubbed the picture. She also kept hallucinating all the way to the hallway's end. Some of her hallucinations appeared as a messy sentence scribbled in blood red liquid, saying _'Your sister is already dead. But you can stay with her here... FOREVER.'_.

Problem is, Lightning did not realize that she was hallucinating.

She kept getting into some kind of trance, one of which is the worse when Fang told her that she dropped her rose and started walking away slowly like a living corpse, completely ignorant, that is, until Fang had slapped her hard to get her out of the state. The gallery was slowly driving her insane.

"Huh? I thought this one is never here before." She heard Fang speaking and turned around to see that she and Vanille were examining a painting. Its title is 'The Musketeer'.

She saw a sentence beside the frame, saying _'Beware of the Musketeer'_. Lightning frowned at the sentence and turned her head to the painting when the so-called Musketeer turned his head to her, and suddenly tossed the rapier he's holding to her forehead. Out of reflex, she ducked when the rapier flew out of the frame and pierced the wall behind her.

The painting returned to normal as if nothing has ever happened. "How can that...?" Vanille questioned with wide eyes when she saw the rapier. "Remember the 'Death of the Individual' statues?" Fang said while putting her hands on her hips. Vanille nodded back in reply. "The painting's alive too." The former said again.

Lightning pulled the rapier from the wall and tried to slash at the wall. It worked. "Now I can wield something to keep myself and you safe." She said flatly and the rapier switched hands with the rose. "Let's go."

The trio proceeded into the depths of the gallery.

* * *

_- Team Two's POV -_

A dead end was ahead of Noel and Serah. Well, not literally a dead end, but a door blocked by a large blue statue. "Let's push it together." Noel said and set his hands on the statue with Serah following. Both pushed the statue away from the door and opened it to see two strange paintings nailed on the wall and hands jutting out of one of the paintings.

"I've went through this before. That's the 'Grieving Bride'," Noel explained and motioned to the bride's painting. "And that's the 'Grieving Groom'." He said and pointed at the groom's painting. "What do we have to do with them?" Serah asked and Noel shook his head, "I don't know."

They skipped the room and into a door. Both found a narrow hallway and rounded around the corner when they saw words in yellow paint;

_Do you like mazes?_

"Hell no." Noel replied to nobody. "Obviously not." Serah added. They entered the maze as there were no options again. The maze was littered with those creepy living headless statues growling and wandering around the maze. The two stayed close to each other when one of the statues started chasing them. They fled from it and eventually lost it in the maze. "This is getting annoying," Serah commented and they found a sign, saying;

_There is a trick to solve the maze. Hug the right hand side and you will reach the end eventually._

Both escaped the maze and found a door. Serah wrote something on the sticky note and stuck it to the wall, to which Noel asked, "What are you writing?"

"It's a message to my sister. Who knows, maybe she'll find the notes I left so she can follow me around this strange gallery." She explained and opened the door and into a room filled with canvases and stools. "Maybe it's a puzzle." Noel said and tried to push one of the canvases. "It's not working."

"What about the stools?" Serah said and tried to push one, "They can move. Let's solve this."

After a few minutes of pushing around stools and thinking, the puzzle is done and an object appeared on one of the stools. It was a bottle of sterile eyedrops. Shrugging, Serah picked it up and pocketed it and she opened the next door into another maze. Finishing the maze, she was about to step down the stairs when Noel griped at her upper arm. "Serah... look down below."

Serah's expression contorted into one of horror when she saw a pair of eyes nailed to the ground. They approached it and found that one of them is reddened and swollen. "It's congested." He said. "Hand me that eyedrops, please." Serah took out the small bottle and handed it to him. Noel squeezed the liquid onto the eye and it turned white and healed. It blinked several times before disappearing and reappearing on one of the walls. It was staring at something.

Considering that it was a clue, they followed the eyes' gaze and found a secret passage. "What are you waiting for? Let's go." Noel said and the two entered the passage.

* * *

_- Back to Team Three -_

Still on the way to find another part, the trio was stuck in a room filled with scary paintings and shards of broken mannequin heads. Lightning was unsure of this, but she certainly had seen something in the corner.

It was a bleeding mannequin head, red liquid cascading down its cheeks and into a vase beneath it. From its neck part flowed a gentle stream of similar fluid. But strangely the mannequin head resembled Serah in every ways, and she was greeted with a more appalling monstrosity when she saw the painting behind it.

"Hey Lightning?"

It was again, a painting of Serah. A noose was looped on her neck, choking the air out of her and long, rusty swords were driven into her body. She was pinned to the wall behind her and blood stained the wall a murderous shade of crimson. Beneath the painting was a sentence, written in blood red liquid, saying _'Hanged Serah'._

"Lightning! Wake up!"

Lightning blinked rapidly and the gruesome image disappeared from her vision. It was Fang and Vanille trying to snap her out of her trance-like state. "We found something. Check it out." Vanille said and took her wrist, dragging her to a door blocked by a plant.

"Talk." Fang commanded the plant and it stirred a bit. "I'm thirsty..." it groaned and shook its leaves. "Give me something hot but also cold at the same time."

"We have to solve something." Fang concluded. Lightning saw a painting of flames on the wall. "What's that painting?" she asked. "What painting?" Vanille asked and tried to look around for something. "There's nothing here." Fang said again and mimicked Vanille's movements. Lightning shook her head and approached the painting.

The plate beneath the frame says, 'Flaming ?'

Lightning reached the painting and it was hot. Very hot that the movement forced two petals off her rose. Frowning at the remaining six petals, she reached into the painting and her hand magically went through it, and it felt like it was burning. She quickly searched for something and a sharp item pricked her hand. She pulled it out and it was a shard of ice.

The plate changes and now it reads 'Flaming Ice'.

Nodding, Lightning tried to look for another opposite painting. She found it in the previous hallway and rushed out to reach it, ignoring Fang and Vanille's cries of protest. She was about to touch the painting when a mannequin head appeared beneath her foot and attempted to bite her.

Out of instinct, Lightning kicked it to the wall and it broke upon contact, shedding blood tears in the process. Ignoring it, she turned to the painting and saw the plate.

It says 'Frozen ?'

The painting was a mixed-up picture of ice blocks and shards of various shapes and sizes. She reached into the painting and the cold bit into her flesh. She found something burning and pulled it out, revealing it to be a hot stone. She looked at her hand and it was a bit blue at the fingertips and paler.

The plate then changes into 'Frozen Flames'.

She returned into the room and found an empty vase. Lightning tossed the ice shard inside and heated the vase with the stone, and the ice melted to form orange glowing water. The vase was hot but the water was cold, and the difference in temperature did not affect each other. This was what the plant meant by 'Something hot but cold at the same time'.

"What's that, sunshine?" Fang questioned as she looked into the vase. "This was what the plant wants." Lightning replied flatly and went to the plant. "Hey, I brought something for you."

The plant stirred. "Oh! Thank you for giving me a drink!" it said. Lightning poured the liquid onto the plant and placed the vase away. "Now I'm not thirsty anymore. Take this as a token to my gratitude." It said and a vase appeared beside it. The plant then moved its vines away for the trio to gain access to the door.

Lightning dipped her rose into the vase and it bloomed again, but the water did not run out. She proceeded to open the door and enter a hallway with the others following behind her.

* * *

_- Back to Team Two -_

"For the love of Etro..."

Noel uttered when he and Serah reached a long, narrow hallway filled with mannequin heads on the sides and large, strange painting on the walls. Serah didn't realize that she was scooting closer to her only companion and that made him tense.

"It's okay as long as you don't cling too much to me." He said and they proceeded down the hallway, keeping cautious eyes on the paintings. Serah felt there were eyes behind her. She turned around and let out a gasp when one of the paintings stared back at her. The two were being watched.

Noel pulled Serah closer to him and escaped the hallway to find a T-junction. He was about to turn left but canceled it when he saw the Lady in Yellow crawling around. "No good." He said. They turned left and found a locked door with a panel. "We have to explore." Serah suggested and the two explored the maze, eventually reaching a second locked door with a question beside it.

_How many paintings of women are in this room?_

"We have to count them?" Noel said and ran a hand through his hair. "It's getting more and more dangerous. I'll count them. You stay here."

Serah nodded and handed the broken hoe to him, "Here, take this with you." He accepted and rushed out to count the paintings. After a few minutes, Noel returned, panting, and she caught a bit of green paint on the end of the hoe. "I can't count them... Some of them are alive so I whacked a Lady in Green. But I found a number, it says '6295'." He said and put his hands on his knees.

"Maybe it's the password to the first door!" Serah said and grabbed Noel's wrist, walking together and returning to the first locked door. She entered the number and the door was unlocked, revealing a room with a canvas, table and stool.

"Stay here, I'll try to count the paintings again." Noel said and left her in the room. "It's like there was someone here..." Serah uttered and approached the table, accidentally knocking it to the left as it slid down all the way to the wall and a click sounded.

Noel returned to the room shortly after. "Fourteen paintings. I've already unlocked the door." He said. Serah followed him out of the room and the two jumped back in shock when they saw a mannequin head on the floor. Ignoring it, they went back all the way to the second door and entered it to find a vase. Noel dipped his rose into the vase and it was restored.

Serah went to the bookshelf and pulled out a book, "Wonderful Days." She said. Noel walked behind her to follow reading it.

_The gallery is like a spooky amusement park with lots of strange things! It's so much fun here; the day was over before I knew it. Isn't it a fantastic place here? Won't you join me here? You'll be fine with all of this company..._

_Please do not touch any of the exhibits. If, by some chance, you damage one of the exhibits, you wil b comp sat n._

Some of the letters were missing. They proceeded into the next room, but the room was hopeless knowing that it was empty. The only object was a mirror. Both of them stared into the mirror. Noel saw a reflection of something on his shoulder.

He turned around and fell on his rear when he saw a bloodied mannequin head. "Don't you freak me out like that!" he yelled and stood up, attempting to kick it to the wall but Serah grabbed his forearm, therefore stopping him from kicking the head. "Don't you be childish! Who knows that maybe something will come out?!" she scolded him that made him back away.

"Oh, uh... sorry. It's a bit immature of me." He said and lowered his head.

They went to the next room and proceeded with their journey through the demented gallery.

* * *

**A/N: I made up several paintings in here: 'The Musketeer', 'The Piercing Gaze', 'Frozen Flames' and 'Flaming Ice', therefore I claim the paintings as my properties. There will be more paintings that never existed in later chapters.**

**I also made up the painting where it depicts the hanged and dead Serah, but I don't know whether to claim it as mine or not.**

**~ Crystal**


	5. Chapter 5: Blackout Basement

**A/N: Sorry for not updating daily, I have things to do at my school (aka sleepover for two days and one night), this chap was ready since three days ago and I haven't posted it. So here I am!**

**Thank you to The Simplest of Hearts and panpanpenny for adding this story to your favorites list and following it too!**

* * *

_- Team One's POV -_

The secret passageway was actually a hallway that never existed in the gallery. Hope and Ayla had noticed the strangely colored walls—blood red that is, and found even weirder paintings inside.

Both passed the painting of a bed covered in white sheets tainted with blood titled 'Death's Bed'. Grimacing a bit, Hope continued the walk and found a strange painting depicting something blurry. "What do you suppose this is?" he questioned and Ayla stopped walking ahead. She returned and examined the painting as well.

"This never existed. I wonder why it's here." she said while staring into the blurry picture. Both stared to deep into the painting as if hypnotized and it's like the real world had left them.

"AAAHH!"

Both let out a terrified scream as the image came into focus. Ayla backed off too far and hit her head to the wall while Hope dropped the crowbar and fell onto his rear. "Who had the heart to draw that kind of thing?!" he yelled, trying to catch a breath from the shock. The picture depicted certainly was gruesome. A golden plate appeared beneath the painting;

_The Longer You Stare..._

"No wonder why." Ayla said while rubbing the back of her head which started to sting after colliding with the wall. She picked up the crowbar and both left the painting and spotted a dead end ahead. It was not a dead end, but actually a rather wide area with five colored switches in the center; red, yellow, blue, green and purple. A sentence appeared on the floor;

_DO YOU K O TH RR T ON ?_

Some of the letters are scratched out. "I guess the only choice is to give it a shot." Ayla said and approached the group of switches. "Try the yellow one." Hope suggested and she stepped on the switch. The ceiling broke and a mannequin head dropped down, breaking into pieces and spilling red liquid everywhere. "Not good."

He stepped on the purple one and nothing happened. Ayla became increasingly frustrated that she decided to step on the red one. It was an awfully wrong choice.

Three headless statues appeared out of nowhere and started to close in on them. "Bad switch!" she exclaimed in panic and tried the blue one, but it made the conditions worse when the statues sped up and began chasing both around the room. Hope noticed changes in the room and spotted three posters with a symbol on each, a green square, a red circle and a blue triangle.

"Rip off the posters!" he yelled and approached one before ripping it off the wall and the green statue broke into pieces of marble. Ayla leaped over the mannequin head's shards and ripped off another poster, also destroying the blue one. They approached the last poster and ripped it off together, therefore disabling the red statue and it broke.

Hope decided to step on the green switch and four mannequin heads appeared, slowly advancing towards them. "Are you kidding me?!" both yelled at the same time and Ayla kicked one to the wall, breaking it and spilling blue liquid on the walls and floor.

One approached her from behind and bit her on the ankle. She let out a cry of pain and fell to the floor, a petal dropping to the floor. She managed to turn around and grab the biter head and tried to keep it away from her face as it squirmed, and tossed it to the wall rather harshly. The two remaining heads are slowly advancing towards her. Ayla tried to stand up but fell back down, and was forced to crawl until her back hit the wall.

Grave mistake.

She realized her rose is lying on the floor and one of the heads advanced towards it, trying to tear a petal off of it but not before Hope grabbed it and tossed it to the wall, breaking upon contact. He kicked the other to the wall and it broke as well. "Are you okay?" he asked and offered her a hand. "No, I can't stand up." Ayla replied.

Hope turned around to the blue switch and stepped on it, and two cords with a vase appeared in the room. "Here, let me help." He said. When she was about to protest he brushed it off and carried her to the vase anyway. Ayla dipped her rose and the bite wound on her ankle disappeared. "Can you walk now?" "I guess..."

He put her down and back to her feet again. "Good. Now we have to find out how this works." He then approached the hanging cords. Ayla just stared at it, a bit dumbfounded, and tried to cover up a blush with her bangs. Hope pulled the left cord and nothing happened. He then pulled the right cord, and made the entire room dark.

"Turn it back on!" she yelled and he tried to pull the right cord again and again, but nothing happened. "I don't have a lighter." He said. "Wait, I might have something here." Ayla said and reached inside her pocket, trying to find anything. She took out an item and snapped it in place on her forearm under her forearm and lit up the room partially. "Better now?"

"A Manadrive?" Hope said and walked to her. "This might be useful."

"Yes, to burn the paintings down if necessary." She replied. He took the fallen crowbar and the two returned to the corridor to hear growling and groaning.

The painting 'Surrender Your Blood' bursts out of its frame and now it was walking around with its bloodstained axe in hand. "No good." Ayla said and diminished the Manadrive Fira on her hand. They started rounding a corner and the dark gallery turned maze-like. They tried to dodge the living painting, but it appears like the trick won't work with the axe's presence.

They hid in a hidden corridor as the enemy passed by, dragging one of its foot behind. "Wait, this is the 'Surrender Your Blood's' frame!" Hope said and motioned to an empty painting with bloodstains on the background. "Burn it down."

Ayla was about to burn the painting with the Manadrive but the enemy was attracted but the orange light and cornered them, axe ready to spill blood. "Quickly!" she casted the artificial spell to the painting and burned it, and the enemy was slowly having flames all over its body.

It wailed in agony as the flames consumed its body and it dropped its axe with a 'clang'. What remained were burnt paper ashes and the axe along with the forgotten frame. "Now we know that they're prone to fire. Just like papers." Hope concluded. "Now let's go back to the useless cord."

They returned to the not-working cord and pulled it, and the lights turned on again. Except for something...

Instead of the switches, there were five creepy-looking blue dolls with wide, bloodshot eyes and a stitched-up smile on its face. They were arranged neatly in a circle in place of the switches. One was wearing a tattered white dress, the other a half-torn pink dress and so on. Seeing the dolls was actually sickening to the point that both almost fainted.

"I hate these... I _really _hate these." Ayla uttered while trying to keep her sanity intact when seeing the dolls. One of them had an ear-to-ear smile and words started to appear in front of the dolls in a crimson substance;

_Please play with us... We'll keep you company..._

"No." Hope sternly rejected and turned around to see a door that never existed in the first place. "Let's go." They left the room and the dolls inside, not knowing what will happen next.

"_They ignored us! How rude!" _The doll wearing the white dress said to the other dolls. A doll wearing a green dress nodded in agreement, "_They hated us! Aren't we kind enough to ask them to play together?" _the doll wearing the pink dress nodded as well, _"Let's go! We have to tell Mommy about this!"_ cries of agreement sounded from the other four dolls.

They disappeared from the room and into another location.

* * *

"I'm a bit curious about the dolls." Hope said while walking in a passage. "They'll almost... alive. They asked us _politely _to play together with them."

"I think it's just some kind of hallucination..." Ayla replied while lowering her head, apparently praying that her eyes were playing tricks on her. "They're real, I guess." He said again. They found a door at the end of the hallway and found a room with a single sculpture inside and a painting on the wall. Ayla gasped upon seeing the large painting behind the 'Wine Sofa' sculpture.

"Mom? Dad? What are you doing in this painting?" Hope followed her gaze into the painting. It depicted a middle-aged man and woman, both had light brown hair but their eye colors are different, the man a bluish hue and the woman a bright green color.

"They are your parents?" he questioned and she nodded back, obviously shocked to see a painting of her parents on the wall. It was a bit nonsensical, though, as every people in the art gallery went missing ever since the lights blacked out at the very start of this mess. Then how in the world can a painting of someone familiar appear in this hellish place?

Running a hand through her hair, Ayla plopped down on the 'Wine Sofa' sculpture and sighed. "How confusing..." she uttered, clearly confused by the painting.

Hope sat beside her on the sculpture—damn the rules of not touching artworks. "You know, you don't have to call me like other people did in the Academy." He said. Ayla ignored it and rested her head on the sofa's arm. He hated admitting it to himself, but somehow he thought that the gesture made her look cuter than usual. But he then removed the thought off his mind.

Hope caught a glinting object peeking a bit from her white blouse. "What's that?" he asked, and Ayla pulled it out, revealing it to be a silver eagle pendant. "It's a birthday gift from my mother. She gave it to me when I'm still nine." She explained.

He was about to ask something when cracking sounded from a nearby wall. Both bolted upright and cobweb-like cracks appeared on the wall before it collapsed, forming a huge hole on it. A Lady in Red appeared from the hole, shrieking at them and reaching out her clawed hands. A nearby window broke and a Lady in Blue appeared with a partially smashed skull, giving the lady a sinister appearance.

"We have to go!" he yelled and grabbed her hand, about to run to a door at the room's end when a Lady in Green appeared from another hole formed by a Lady in Yellow. "We're trapped!" Ayla yelled when a headless statue appeared out of nowhere and approached them slowly. They ran around and dodged the artworks, but three mannequin heads appeared before they reached the door.

They were lucky that the heads were quite small. Both just jumped over the heads and onto the door, opening it, and saw hell outside of the room.

Almost _all _paintings and sculptures came to life. Three headless statues appeared from the left hallway with a blue doll on each of its missing 'head' part, each of the dolls cackling maniacally. Ayla realized that those were three of the five dolls in the previous room, the one wearing the pink, white and another wearing a green dress.

They turned right and dodged a spitting painting, dodging five mannequin heads and so on, avoiding a mad mob of artworks along the way. The nearby window had red liquid leaking from outside and a shadowed figure was banging at it. The Painting Ladies crawled out of the 'Wine Sofa' room and chased them together with the mannequin heads.

Hope, panic-stricken, dragged Ayla behind him and rounded a corner and into a door. He opened it and slammed it shut in time for the Lady in Green to bang at it, claws tearing through the wood. Hope stood against the door to stop the artworks from entering and the noise died down.

Ayla turned around to see a literally bleeding painting. It had red liquid cascading down its face from its eyes. Then she held her head as if she was dizzy. "Hey, are you alright?" Hope asked and moved in front of her. "I've had... _enough_ of it..." she muttered. "No, not now. Don't collapse," his attempts of keeping her conscious was futile when she collapsed onto him. "Good..." he said and picked her up, leaving to the room's corner.

* * *

_Tick-tock, tick-tock._

_Ayla looked around and heard sounds of clock ticking. She saw a door and ran to open it, slamming it shut behind her. She looked around the room and the whole place was littered with splotches of blood._

_Tick-tock, tick-tock. Panicked, she ran to another door ahead of her and opened it, also slamming it behind her. She turned to the door in case of any artworks that may enter the room. Ayla ran to another door ahead of her and found it locked. "Oh come on!" she yelled and turned the doorknob, but it was a useless attempt._

_The door suddenly opened and she flew right through it, landing facedown roughly. She stood back up and gave a horrified look at the objects in the room._

_A mannequin head was hung from the ceiling in the room's corner, red liquid dripping from it to the floor. A blue doll was beside it, cackling maniacally with insanity written across its expression. It wielded a knife and wore a bloodstained, tattered blue dress. The Lady in Red was ahead of her, trashing in her painting, trying to get out of the frame._

_A headless statue was on her right and a stray mannequin head was on her left, crying blood tears. Writings appeared beside the Lady in Red, saying that she has met her doom._

_Tick-tock, tick-tock. The artworks cornered her until there was no room for movement. Ayla tried to open it but the knob won't budge. Tick-tock, tick-tock. The sounds of the clock grew louder. Tick-tock, tick-tock. The headless statue reached out its arms to her, ready to break her bones. Tick-tock, tick-tock. The head cried more blood tears and advanced towards her._

_CRASH!_

_The Lady in Red broke through her painting and crawled her way to Ayla. The maniacal doll cackled and thrusts its knife into her lower leg, making her fall to the floor and she clutches the wound. The Lady in Red snatched the rose from her hands, tearing the top off the stalk and devouring the torn violet petals._

_Everything became blurry soon after._

* * *

**A/N: I claim 'Surrender Your Blood', 'The Longer You Stare...' and 'Death's Bed' as mine. Hahaha, more and more insane artworks are popping from my mind. All of them are paintings. Good way I made the dream scarier than in the actual game...**

**~ Crystal**


	6. Chapter 6: Feelings?

**A/N: Dammit, I knew I made a mistake. I forgot to add that crazy painting that eats flowers and often laughs like some kind of idiot. I'll fix it like... right now, after the first part was done.**

* * *

_- Re-cap: Team One -_

Ayla woke up nearly screaming from the terrible nightmare. She clearly remembered how the doll stabbed her, how the Lady in Red tore off the petals of her rose. She remembered how she died in the hands of the living artworks.

Looking around the room, she remembered that this is where she and Hope hid from the mad mob of artworks. She found that her rose is already placed in a vase with the everlasting water. "Did you sleep well?" Hope's voice caught her attention. He was holding a red book and actually reading it. "I had a nightmare." She answered flatly and hugged her knees to her chest.

"Care to tell me what it is?" he asked again while putting the book back on the shelf and walked to sit in front of her. "It was like sounds of clock ticking..." Ayla began. "And after I opened a few doors I found the living artworks inside the room; a suspended dead mannequin head, a doll wielding a knife, another living head, a statue and the Lady in Red."

Fresh tears started to pool in her green eyes. "The doll stabbed me, and then... then..." she was unable to continue that now she had started sobbing. "The lady stole my rose, and then she killed me..."

Hope's eyes widened slightly. "That's... terrible."

"I'm afraid if that would _actually_ happen..." she said and sobbed more. He also lowered his head at the sight. He hated to see her suffer from the constant encounters with the living artworks. He clenched his fist and moved closer to her, and then hugging her.

Shock was Ayla's obvious first response. She ignored it and continued crying, gripping his jacket. "It's okay," Hope assured, rubbing her back comfortingly. "We'll exit this place alive."

"And I don't want you to call me officially." He added. She just nodded to it. "Good." He said and averted his gaze to the window. He saw words appearing slowly on the wall beneath it and frowned. The words were a total death threat.

_Let her go. I want to claim her as mine. Disobey me and you will be here forever..._

_LET HER STAY WITH US! JUST LET HER!_

"No." he said all of a sudden to the words. He blinked rapidly and the words were gone. "No for what?" Ayla asked, though voice a bit muffled from the crying. "It's... nothing." Hope replied and looked back at the wall beneath the window, and saw that the words were actually gone from sight.

"Y-You're suffocating me..." she muttered. He slightly loosened his grip on her and moved back. She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and exhaled. "We have to leave now." He said and stood up, not forgetting the rose and handing it to her. "Thanks." She said and stood up while dusting her suit.

"You first." Hope said and opened the door for her. Ayla left the room wordlessly and he spared a last glance to the room's interior, and saw another sentence written in green paint.

_BE HERE FOREVER IN THIS BLOODSTAINED GALLERY._

* * *

_- Team Three's POV -_

The door that the plant blocked led the trio into a strange hallway filled with nothing but broken shards of mannequin heads. There was also a painting titled 'The Corpse Bride' at the hallway's end.

"It's kinda creepy in here..." Lightning heard Vanille said that. She just ignored it and gripped the rapier in her hand tighter, anticipating an attack from the painting. None happened.

They found two doors, one heading to the left and one heading to the right. "Left or right?" she questioned the two people behind her. "Just go left, sunshine." Fang replied and motioned for her to open the door. Lightning gripped the doorknob and twisted it, revealing a room.

Fang closed the door behind them and found a statue inside the room. She backed off of it immediately. Lightning explored the room and found a painting, with a picture the same as always. It was again Serah, now impaled to the ground at her forehead with a knight's sword. "Dammit..." She uttered and backed away a few steps from it.

It was like no one saw all the gruesome paintings she saw, from the hanged-upside-down-Serah painting until this painting. And how can the two cannot see the 'Frozen Flames' and the 'Flaming Ice'? It was nailed on the wall right in front of their eyes.

She turned around and saw Vanille and Fang in front of a group of three switches. One blue, one pink, and the other one was yellow. She approached them to make sure that they didn't do anything stupid. "I bet it's yellow." Lightning heard Fang argue with Vanille. "I'm sure it's the blue one, Fang." Vanille retorted with a pout.

To make it fair, Lightning wordlessly stepped on the pink switch. Three statues in the room stirred and growled before advancing towards them. "Bad one." Fang said and broke off into a sprint to the door with Vanille in tow. Lightning followed the two to the door and slammed it shut behind her. She noticed that the 'Corpse Bride' painting was gone from the wall and the door to the right was opened.

"We might as well explore." She said and dared to peek into the door. She saw that the painting was walking limply around the room. The Corpse Bride was actually a beautiful woman, that is, if only she was pictured as a living person.

The bride had long flowing black hair and red eyes. She wore a torn veil and gown, and she was losing her left eye. Her right arm was gone and her left leg was simply nothing but skeleton. The flowers in the bouquet were wilted and long dead.

The three tiptoed across the room. When Fang was about to open the door, the painting snapped her head towards them and let out a blood curdling shriek, walking faster to them albeit still limping. "Run!" Lightning commanded and Fang and Vanille opened the door and ran outside. Lightning rushed to the painting, careful with her red rose, and stabbed the bride on her lower right midriff.

The rapier tore straight through the painting and black ink blood flowed out of the wound. Ignoring the rapier, Lightning ran back to the door and slammed it shut behind her. Great, she just lost her only weapon for the moment.

Lightning looked around and found that Vanille and Fang were gone. "Vanille? Fang?" she called out but nobody answered her. Exhaling loudly in clear irritation, she was forced to explore the demented gallery all by herself.

* * *

_- Team Two's POV -_

After getting out from the 'mirror room' as how Serah had dubbed it, they found a branching pathway. Three doors in alternating colors were at the hallway's end; purple, red and gold. "Where should we go?" Serah questioned to her companion.

Noel just shrugged. "I bet it's the red door." He replied. Serah was actually tempted to open the beautiful golden door, but with the scary atmosphere, seemingly good things can turn out to be very bad. That's what her logic said. Noel opened the red door in the middle and they entered it to find that the room was dark.

"Stay close!" he yelled in the darkness to make sure that she was nowhere too far. "Alright!" Serah replied and tried to find Noel in the dark. When the lights are on again, they found that they were back at the beginning. "Huh?" they said at the same time.

Things are the same, except for one thing.

It was a painting that looked like a jack-o-lantern with a crazed look on its face, but it was blue. They approached it and the painting started giggling madly. "Eheheheh, I liiike flowers." It said. "Did you bring that for me?"

Serah and Noel gave their roses a glance. "No." they said at the same time. "I just want a sniiiiffff," it said again. "Can you give it to me?"

"No!" the two replied and hid their roses behind their backs. "Oh come oooooonnn, I just wanna sniff it... Ahahahahah, HAHAHAHAHA!" it laughed crazily. "Pretty pleeeaseee?" it gave a pleading expression to the two. Serah shook her head at the painting's manners. "Don't go near it, it might eat the petals." Noel warned and they left the painting.

"Wait, what about the 'Grieving Bride's' hands?" Serah said all of a sudden. "That's right! She might give us a bouquet!" Noel said half-excitedly and they returned to the maze of statues.

After looking around, he stumbled upon a red glass orb. He picked it up anyway and the two finished the maze and found a painting of an eyeless snake at the maze's end in a secluded room. Serah inserted the glass orb into the missing eye part after taking it from Noel, and the eyes looked to the room's left.

It was a small tree sitting in a pot at the corner. They approached it and saw a gleaming object between the leaves, and pulled it out. It was a gold wedding ring with a small white jewel on the center. Serah pocketed the ring and they returned to the maze and back where they would find the Grieving Bride.

She slipped the ring on the left ring finger and the bride in the painting smiled brightly. She tossed out the bouquet out of the frame and Serah caught it. "Nice catch." Noel said with a slight smile. "Thanks." She replied and followed him back to the 'crazy painting' as how Noel dubbed it.

They approached the weird painting and it started giggling madly as usual. "Did you bring it for me?" it said. "Y-Yeah..." Serah replied uncertainly and offered the bouquet. The painting took a really long sniff on the bouquet of pink roses. "It's reeeeallly niiiiiceeee..." it said, but then its expression changed into an aggressive one and its color is now blood red. "Well now, chow tiiiiimeee!"

It said and chomped the bouquet, scattering pink petals everywhere. After letting out a belch, its expression returned to normal. "You can pass. See yaaa~!" it said and a blue door appeared beside it, and the two took the path.

* * *

_- Back to Team One -_

Hope and Ayla found a large area with two doors at the end. They approached the left one and tried to open it, but it was locked. "There's a peephole over here." Ayla said and peeked through it. "There's nothing inside, though."

They tried the right one and it opened, revealing a room with three statues inside. Once both shut the door, it was gone. The yellow statue in the room's corner moved and started advancing towards them. "Hit the red switch!" Hope yelled while going to the blue switch. Ayla moved quickly and hit the red switch, but the red statue came to life.

Hope also pressed the blue switch but the blue statue also moved. "Crap!" Ayla yelled and ran to the green switch, and it opened a new passage. The two escaped the room and appeared back to the large area, but now the area had changed.

They approached an all-white painting with black lines on the wall. "What's a milk puzzle doing in here?" Hope said and Ayla just shrugged at the painting. They also found a small bookshelf at the area's corner. A book with a blue cover fell from it and Ayla picked it up, opening it and reading it.

"Oh my goodness..." she said, abruptly closing the book. She was blushing heavily from the book's content. "What's it about?" Hope asked. "No need to know..." she replied and returned the blue book to the shelf. They walked west and found a room with a single mirror. They tensed when they saw a broken mannequin head beside a bloodied one.

The path ahead was branching. They tried the north door but the knob wouldn't budge an inch. There was a panel beneath the knob. Ignoring it, they tried the south door. A statue was blocking the door. Hope pushed it away and opened the door.

They returned to the large room again. "What the...?" Ayla uttered when they saw the large area. "There's writing under the lamp." Hope said and motioned to the stand lamp at the corner beside another bookshelf.

_What is the name of the largest floor painting?_

"Easy. It's 'Abyss of the Deep'." Ayla said to no one. Something clicked inside Hope. "Remember the locked door with the panel? It's the password." He said.

They returned to the locked door and entered the password. A loud click sounded and the door opened, revealing a pretty much empty room with a few bookshelves and a large red-and-black painting. "Separation." The two read aloud the title. The lights went out all of a sudden.

"Don't move!" Hope yelled and stayed on his place. Ayla tried to light up a spell but the Manadrive won't work. She knocked it to the wall several times until a click was heard. She formed a spell on her hand and the room lit up, but it was eerier than before.

On the walls and floor were writings like; 'Help', 'Please don't', and 'Don't kill me'. "This is really bad for my mental health..." Hope uttered and moved closer to Ayla. "No, it's _our _mental health." She corrected with a nervous chuckle. "The plate changed to 'S T O P'." he said and found a door. "Come on."

They exited the room and a sentence appeared on the floor. "A rule about lighting fires." Ayla said. They ignored it and looked to the floor to find bloodstains and red footprints. "Let's follow it." She suggested and they walked further down the hallway.


	7. ENDING I

**A/N: This ending should have NEVER happened in the story. Think of it like all the Paradox Endings in XIII-2. This was a happy ending for Noel and Serah.**

**Enjoy!**

**(P.S: To those who haven't known this; this ending WILL NOT affect the main storyline.)**

* * *

Serah was really, really tempted to open the golden door.

But she guessed that Noel wouldn't let her to open it. "I guess it's the gold one..." she muttered, earning a glance from him. He let out a sigh, "Alright, but if something bad happened, I'll blame it on you." Serah let out a giggle. "Thanks!" she gripped the doorknob and twisted it, revealing a dark hallway.

The two went inside and shut the door gently. The hallway was starting to darken the deeper inside, until it was actually pitch black. Serah started to panic. "Noel! Where are you?" she called out and felt a hand on her shoulder. "I'm here." Noel's voice sounded as he pulled her closer to him to make sure that nothing would separate them.

The room slowly lit up again to normal. Then they found themselves back at the main room of the gallery, in front of the 'Abyss of the Deep' painting. "We're back to where we began." Noel said. "Where should we go?" "I don't know. We have to explore the gallery."

After around an hour or so roaming the empty gallery, they came up with empty hands. There was nothing to do around the area. "Oh come on," Noel groaned, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Well... at least we're together..." Serah said. Those words made him stop groaning. "Wait, what?" he arched an eyebrow, totally confused with her words.

She realized what she had said. "Umm... Noel?"

"Yeah?" he replied, sitting down beside her. "Can I say something?" he just nodded at it, "Get it over with." Serah lowered her head, trying to cover up a slight blush with her bangs. "I think... I like you." Noel froze, deadpanned. "I know it's stupid..." she said again.

"No, obviously it's _not _stupid." He rejected with a smile. "I think I do too."

Serah's face lit up at his words. She scooted closer to him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek that also made him blush slightly. "Thanks for accompanying me." Noel nodded, still keeping his smile. "Thanks for saving me."

They shared a lighthearted moment for a while until Noel stood up and dusted his brown pants, "Let's get going." He said and Serah followed him around the gallery until they found a hidden passageway with a large abstract painting on the wall titled 'Fabricated World'. "We have to jump in, I guess." She said.

"_Serah."_

A voice called out to her. She looked around and saw Lightning. "L-Lightning?" she stammered as her sister approached her. "Don't trust him. He'll trick you later." Lightning said. "Come with me instead." She gave Serah a hand.

The confused Serah had to make a hard decision; to follow her sister and ditch Noel in this world or follow him and never see her sister again. She wanted to see her sister so much, but what will Noel think if she left him alone and by himself? No, she wouldn't do that.

Lightning gave her an insisting look. "My sister is out there looking for me..." she muttered to herself. "If she found me, she wouldn't just ask me to go with her. She will—at least she'll do something first..." Serah shook her head no. "Noel, let's go."

Lightning this time gave her an unimpressed look and left the two alone. Words appeared behind her as she left the scene;

_May you be here forever..._

She returned to Noel. "Who are you talking to?" he questioned, a confused look on his face. "Didn't you see someone approaching me and talking for a while to me? That's my sister." She replied. "I don't see anyone."

"So it's true," Serah gasped. "She's an illusion wanting to trap me in this world forever."

"Nah, never mind that. Come on, I'll help you up." Noel said and offered her a hand. She took it and he helped her jump into the 'Fabricated World' painting before jumping in himself.

* * *

When they both came out, they were still in the demented gallery, back to the Abyss of the Deep. "We're still here. I don't know what to do anymore." Noel said and plopped down in front of the painting. "This is like a maze."

"But... we can't just give up!" Serah said, lightly stomping her foot to the marble floor. "Noel, we have to keep looking. Who knows, maybe we had just missed an exit!" Then she lowered her head and spoke in a sad tone, "It's a really big mistake to open that golden door..."

"Well, it's not only your fault," Noel gave her an assuring look. "It's also mine. I regretted letting you open the door."

"Now, let's find your sister. Maybe she's out there looking for you, Etro knows where." He said and stood back up. "Are you sure we'll find her?" Serah gave a slightly disbelieving look. "Yeah, like I said, we'll always find her. It's like... ah, playing hide-and-seek with her!"

They laughed for a while at his comment. "Come on, let's go." Serah said.

Noel nodded and grabbed her hand, venturing deeper and deeper into the demented version of the gallery, holding hands and with light spirits.

* * *

"We found a new artwork from Guertena!" Shouted a hyper male museum guide. The crowds near the 'Glass of Antipodes' painting started mumbling to each other. "There was another new artwork?" A teenager between the people said loud enough to be heard. "Show me where it is!"

The museum guide nodded in reply and motioned to the people to follow him, "This way, please!"

The people followed the guide around hallways and stopped in front of a large painting nailed to the wall next to the 'Couplet Towers' painting.

It depicted a young pink-haired woman holding hands with a brunette young man around her age as they ventured deeper into someplace unknown. On the lower part of the painting was a pair of roses, one blue and one pink with stems intertwined. Above the roses was a text written in Guertena's best cursive;

_Everything is alright as long as I'm with you._

"It's a really good one," a man whispered to another. "Guertena always made good artworks!" a young girl exclaimed happily beside her mother. "The title is 'Always Together'." The guide explained to the crowd and they nodded in agreement.

- Ending I: Always Together -

* * *

**A/N: How's that, huh? I'll make more endings in the future, though most of them were bad endings. I think I need to brainstorm for more good endings... I haven't made one for Lightning and Serah. Oh, and Vanille and Fang too!**

**Alright, since from this point Lightning is separated from Fang and Vanille, I'll label the latter two as Team Four and Lightning still remained in Team Three.**

**Ciao!**

**~ Crystal**


	8. ENDING II

**A/N:**

**To a Guest Reader: Thanks ^^! I take that as a compliment. Thanks for dropping by and sending a review, whoever you are.**

**If Ending I is a good ending, I'll twist it into Ending II, which is rather... sad. I don't know how to say it, but I guess it'll be a good ending for Noel and an absolute bad ending for Serah. Just keep up with the story, I'll try to update rapidly.**

* * *

_- Re-cap: Ending I -_

Something had caught Serah's attention as she looked around to find something. There was nothing in Noel's sight, though, then who or what was she looking for? They wanted to jump in the Fabricated World painting, but Serah ignored his commands to just jump in with him and escape this demented gallery.

"Serah, come on!" he called out, trying to get her attention. "What are you waiting for?"

Serah just ignored him. She was facing someone or something, but Noel can't see what she is doing. No matter how much he tried to call her, she won't obey him and just go into the abstract painting back to the real world.

"Alright."

He heard her say that and stopped trying to jump into the painting himself. Serah dropped her rose to the ground and slowly walked away with nobody in particular. "Serah!" Noel yelled as loud as he could, but she never listened. "Serah, don't go! We have to jump in!" she ignored him and disappeared in the shadows after a few minutes of walking.

He took his hands off the golden framing of Fabricated World and walked over to the rose. "Did she just ignore me?" Noel questioned to no one while picking up the fallen flower. "She just... ditched me in this world. And it's... after confessing her love to me?"

He stared into the shadows where Serah had just left. "You can't just..." he fell to his knees in defeat. "... Leave like that..."

* * *

Serah and Lightning are walking down the hallway with Lightning beside her, holding hands. She was grateful that she can meet her sister again after all the suffering inside this demented gallery.

The hallway was quite dark, but she can't remember what place is this. She spotted three blue rose petals on the floor when looking around next to the painting of a red and black face. The petals were familiar... but how? How can the petals be there?

She never knew.

Lightning was quite silent after she talked to her and followed her around. But Serah could see faint satisfaction on her expression. But it is satisfaction... of what? She caught Lightning smirking grimly in the dim light. She ignored it, though. "Lightning?" she dared to ask her sister. "Are you okay?"

No response.

"Alright..." she said lowly and lowered her head, staring at her shoes while continuing to walk. They kept making their way through the paintings and the sculptures inside the gallery, that is, until a certain noise in the background caught her attention.

They reached a large area filled with paintings, sculptures and statues. Serah looked around and found the Painting Ladies lined up neatly, leaning against the wall instead of nailed to it.

She could have sworn that the Lady in Blue stirred a bit. Five mannequin heads are grouped together at the room's corner, sitting on the ground neatly with three creepy-looking dolls beside the group of heads. Four statues are grouped across of the Painting Ladies.

Alright, this is a bit creepy.

The statues stirred and growled, advancing towards her and Lightning. Serah's eyes widened in pure terror as the Lady in Green and the Lady in Red broke free from their respective frames, crawling towards them with bloodlust. "Lightning?" she called out worriedly and faced her sister. The dolls laughed and one of them pulled out a knife.

The heads advanced towards them as well until they are cornered. "We're in a really big trouble." Serah said to her sister and faced her again. She caught a grim expression on Lightning's face. "Correction, Serah." She said.

"You're in a big trouble."

Everything came back inside her. Memories of Noel, the moments she shared with him. He was about to take her to safety... but she chose her sister instead. And again, this so-called 'sister' doesn't appear to be the real Lightning.

"You're not real..." she muttered to herself and fell to her knees. Lightning's expression remained the same, until a half-maniacal grin appeared on her face, "Welcome to my world, Serah Farron."

A scream made its way out of Serah's lips as the world turned dark.

* * *

Noel stood in front of a rose sculpture, staring at it sadly. Somehow the sculpture reminded him of something, but he can't remember what it is. The 'Embodiment of Spirit' sounded and looked familiar to him, but he couldn't... remember it. Everything about the sculpture started to disturb him.

"There is another new artwork!" he snapped his head towards three people walking to a crowd gathered near a painting. Thinking for a while, he decided to follow the three people. True enough, he found around fifteen people gathered in front of a guide.

He saw it; when the size of the painting was impressive, the picture inside was anything but pleasant.

A young woman with pink hair styled into a left side ponytail was lying on the ground, motionless. A knife was stabbed into her heart and she looked badly beaten, rose vines wrapped around her body. Pink petals are spread around her corpse and her blood smeared the dark ground.

Noel dared to look to the golden plate beneath the frame; it said 'Dying Alone'.

Not wanting to listen to the crowd's opinions for the painting, he walked briskly away and left the scene. Sure, it was art, but at least it can't be so... gruesome, right?

He reached into his pocket and a sharp object pricked his fingers. He pulled it out and it was revealed to be a pair of roses—one blue and one pink. The blue rose looked fresh and well-grown, but the pink rose was wilted with one petal left, that lone petal was long dead.

"How could this...?" he muttered to himself upon sight of the flowers. He never placed a rose inside his pocket. But if he did, he never planted a blue one. That was impossible.

"... Serah?"

Noel knotted his eyebrows in confusion at the name. He never knew someone named Serah. But how can he say the person's name? He turned around to the 'Dying Alone' painting and took a closer look to the petals. It did match with the petals of the pink rose he had.

"Serah..."

- Ending II: Forever Alone -

* * *

**A/N: Another ending. Yep, this time it's a brutal one for Serah. Some parts matched with 'Memory's Crannies', right? Like, where Garry didn't remember Ib.**

**Ah, enough talk. I should do more parts.**

**~ Crystal**


	9. Chapter 7: A Mysterious Girl

**A/N: Okay... back to the main storyline.**

* * *

_- Re-cap: Team One's POV -_

When they reached the upper tiers, a girl ran to them and knocked both her and Ayla to the floor. "Ouch!" the girl exclaimed, long blonde hair falling onto her face.

"Are you okay?" Ayla asked and helped the girl back to her feet and she dusted her knee-length skirt. "It's alright, I'm fine." The girl replied and swiped her bangs away from her face, revealing wide, deep blue eyes.

She wore a green long-sleeved shirt with a yellow bow on the front and a black neckerchief under the collar, knee-length skirt colored a darker green with yellow rose patterns, black knee-high socks and green Mary-Jane shoes with a small yellow rose on the front. A yellow rose pendant completed her look.

"Are you a visitor from the gallery?" Hope asked. The girl nodded in reply. "Your name is?"

For a while the girl looked a bit shy, "I-I'm Mary..." Mary replied. "And how old are you, Mary?" Hope kneeled to the girl's eye level, "I'm eleven."

"It's very dangerous for an eleven year-old like you to wander around someplace like this. Oh, right, I'm Ayla and this is Hope." Ayla introduced. "Why don't you come with us, Mary? We'll help you out." Mary's expression brightened and she gave a sweet smile, eyes gleaming hopefully. "Sure! I want to go out as soon as possible."

Mary took Ayla's hand and they ventured deeper into the hallway. They spotted a vase at the end, but this was the single-use only. Ayla took out her rose from her pocket and checked it. No petals lost, but it was halfway wilted. She dipped it into the vase and it freshened up again.

Two doors are beside the table with the vase. Ayla took out the note and stuck it to the wall, saying 'We found an eleven year-old girl named Mary. If anyone knew her, please help. Director Hope and museum guide Ayla went this way'. 'Alright Mary," Hope began, facing Mary. "Seeing that Ayla here had a rose... did you have one as well?"

Mary nodded and showed a yellow rose she held all the time. "Here! Mine's yellow!"

His face turned serious, "Don't you two dare lose it. Never give the rose to anyone and any suspicious paintings, and then—"he was cut off by Mary's giggling, "Wow! Ayla's rose is purple! It's really unique, I've never seen one before!" he shook his head at her manners. "Mary, learn to listen."

Maybe bringing Mary along was a bad idea?

Ignoring Mary's continuous comments about the Guertena Art Gallery, the trio continued down the hallway up a small set of stairs leading to the left and right, two doors at the pathway's end. There was a large painting titled 'Flowers of Jealousy' on the wall, depicting yellow roses. Just like Mary's rose.

They tried the right door, but it was locked so they tried the left door. When they opened it, Hope was the only person that looked as if he was shocked. "C-Cuttlefish?" he said, trying to take in his surroundings. Mary walked up to the large painting and read aloud the title, "Red Eyes." She said.

"It's very unsettling..." Hope said. "Really? I think Red Eyes is cute..." Mary said and looked as if she's admiring the painting. "Cute?" he questioned in a disbelieving tone of voice. "It's actually... Ayla, what do you think it is?" Ayla hesitated for a while, "I think... it's cute. Like Mary said, it's cute." She repeated and he looked taken aback.

"Oh come on Hope, if you think that Red Eyes isn't cute, then you're quite a weirdo." Mary said with a giggle. "Never mind that. Let's just investigate this place." Hope shrugged and walked closer to Ayla. "Say, are you two a couple?" Mary asked while tilting her head to the side, looking somewhat cute.

The two looked to each other and nodded their heads with an uncertain look, "Apparently." they answered.

Mary ignored it and walked off to the shelves displaying the cuttlefish sculptures, constantly glancing at her yellow rose. Ayla walked to the bookshelf and took out a book with golden cover and sat down with Hope beside her. "Ruin of the Heart?" they said at the same time, looking at the book's title. Ayla flipped the pages and found a page that was half-torn.

_If your spirit suffers too much, you will start to hallucinate._

_In the end, you all will be destroyed from it. And even more worried yet... that you will not be conscious of the fact that you are seeing things. It's all simply_

The rest was torn. Not wanting to read the book any further, they returned to book to the shelf. "You're seeing things, right?" Ayla said, giving Hope a disbelieving look. "No. I'm sure of it." He replied. "What did you see, then?"

"It's, uh... hard to tell."

"I saw a Chocobo with red eyes. Like the ones sold in the new Nautilus." She admitted. "I think... I saw one of those dolls. But this one was big and red paint is leaking from its stitched-up mouth." He said. "I think something matches with the 'Ruin of the Heart' book... 'If your spirit suffers too much, you will start to hallucinate'." Ayla explained.

"I'm not sure who is hallucinating between both of us." Hope said. "No. It's the three of us. Never forget about Mary, she might be listening." She said. "Right, Mary?"

When both looked around Mary was gone from sight. "Mary? Don't go out there alone! What if—" Hope yelled out to be cut off by sounds of one of the cuttlefish sculptures breaking into pieces. They walked over to it and found a violet key. Ayla pocketed it and walked out to be greeted with a weird glance from Mary, who was standing outside next to the Flowers of Jealousy.

"Thanks for not going anywhere, Mary." Ayla said and Mary gave a nod, smiling. Rumbling sounded across the hallway, making her cling to Ayla's left arm. "What's that?" she cried, fearing that something might happen. The rumbling continued and a flower shot out of the painting. "Watch out!" Hope yelled and shoved the two apart from him as a thick vine wall shot up to the ceiling, separating them. Ayla tried to ruin the vines with the crowbar, but they were surprisingly solid like stone.

"Hope! Are you alright?" she yelled, peeking an eye through a peephole between two vines. She saw Hope coughing while dusting his jacket. "I'm fine!" he yelled back. "Just go! I'll try to find you both. Keep Mary safe!"

"No freaking way!" she yelled back, gripping on one of the thorns on the vines, though the move scarred her hands and causing a petal to fall off her rose. "What if you're hurt? What if I can't find you?"

"I'll find you! I swear!" he replied and gave her an assuring look. "Listen Hope, if you're dead when I found you, I'll make sure that I have to track you down and kill you twice for worrying me!" Ayla yelled again, this time almost banging her fist to the vines' solid surface and backed off to Mary's side, who had been sitting on the floor.

"I..." Hope stopped, unsure of what to say. "I promise." Ayla nodded back. "See you." Mary stood up and waved back at him, still oddly cheerful.

"Make sure Mary doesn't do anything harmful." Hope said in a near-whisper voice once the two left.

* * *

_- Team Two's POV -_

"Serah, we're back to the three doors." Noel said once he and Serah reached the three doors, the one lined up neatly with alternating colors.

"Maybe it's the purple one?" Serah said and gripped the doorknob. "It's not locked." She opened it and it did work. They went through the narrow corridor and into a large area with two doors, one to the left and the other to the right.

Noel peeked through the slight opening in the rightmost door and saw several bloodstains on the ground. Not to mention, a living painting was inside with a rapier stabbed into the painting's lower midriff. They tiptoed across the room and the painting didn't notice them when they went through the only door in the area. Serah shut the door gently.

"Footprints?" She said and kneeled to examine the footprints. "Someone's been through here." Noel said and examined the footprints as well. "We better track it down."

When he said that, a lone mannequin head at the room's corner stirred and moved towards them, about to bit Serah. "Serah, look out!" Noel yelled and stood up. Serah backed away from the advancing head and he kicked it to the wall and it broke upon contact, splattering yellow paint everywhere.

"What's that?" Serah said and approached the broken head and took an object coated in yellow paint. It was a key. Strangely, the key felt like as if it's made from crayon. If not, chalk.

"Weird key..." she said and pocketed it, not caring the yellow paint that smeared her white top. "Come on, we have to investigate." They went down the hallway and found a vase. "Finally, a vase." Noel sighed in relief and dipped his rose into the water. It ran out quickly.

They continued the journey and found three doors. Noel tried the green door and Serah tried the orange one, but both doors won't budge. Finally, they tried the blue one and it opened. Inside was the usual 'safe-room', with nothing weird inside. Noel shut the door behind him and sat down. Serah approached the lone bookcase and accidentally pulled out a box. A locked one, for sure.

"Hey Noel, check this out." She said and sat down beside him. "A sketchbook would fit inside." He said. A small lock secured the box, preventing it from being opened by anyone.

A name was written on it, but they can't make up the word due to most of the letters being scratched out, with the letter 'Y' left alone. "Try to open it with the 'crayon key'. Maybe it'll work." Noel suggested. Serah took out the key and tried it on the lock, and it worked. The box opened and true enough, a small sketchbook was inside.

They opened it and saw drawings of crayon. One was of a large field, the other a pink house, and so on. It was drawn crudely like it resembled a three year-old's drawings.

After a while opening it, Serah returned it to the bookcase and leaned against the wall, "I need to catch some shut eye. I'm really tired." She said and shut her eyes, attempting to get some sleep. "Yeah, me too." Noel replied and leaned against the door in case of any mad artworks trying to get in.

They both entered a dreamless sleep together.

* * *

_- Back to Team Three -_

After unlocking the door with the new violet key, Ayla and Mary found a large room full of boxes and four statues inside. Mary walked over to the red one and tapped its smooth surface with her fist. "Looks like this one will break if you hit it. But it's too heavy to move around." She said.

Ayla tried swinging the crowbar to its surface but only a scratch appeared. A small one. She tried pushing it, but it only creaked and moved less than a centimeter. "Is there anything useful around, Mary?"

Said girl walked to a box full of paint tools and looked around inside. "Here!" she said, pulling out a well-sharpened palette knife. "Maybe this can cut down the vines!"

"Probably. Should we try it now?" Mary just giggled in reply, "I'm just kidding! You're not good with jokes, right?" then she looked down to its shiny surface. "But I'll keep it... you know, just in case." Ayla shot her a curious look. Around five minutes later, Mary stopped looking around for things that might be useful. "Nothing here. It's hopeless." She said.

Hearing the final word made Ayla slump her shoulders a bit. Mary realized her mistake and walked to her, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." She said in a saddened tone. "It's okay." Ayla replied.

_This girl sure is odd..._

* * *

_They're taking their time... _Hope thought to himself. _I'm a bit worried if Mary might do something harmful. It can be to herself or even worse..._

Even is Mary is an eleven year-old, he can't just trust the girl so easily. Mary was just a stranger they met by accident. Besides, her clothing was a little bit odd with the era. He was very sure that no one in the whole Academia wore clothes that looked like clothing in the Middle Ages.

_I have to go back and investigate that room, _He thought, glancing at the door where they would find the 'Ruin of the Heart' book. ..._As much as I hated to go back inside. _He finished in his mindset. Hope returned to the room and winced at the sight of the 'Red Eyes' painting. The blue dolls that he and AYla had encountered also appeared as well out of nowhere.

He eyed the bookshelf carefully and pulled out a yellow book amidst purple books. The bookshelf slid to the right, revealing a hole. "I should've had done this before." He said to nobody in particular and crawled through the hole.

He appeared inside a new room and found another unused memo and pen. The tore off one paper and jotted down a note, sticking it on the wall.

_Got separated from both Ayla and Mary._

_If anyone read this, please help either them or me.  
Make sure that they're safe if you helped them first._

_The two are of most importance._

_- Director Hope Estheim went this way._

Sighing, he walked over to five cords hanging from the ceiling. The found a sentence on the wall behind the cords, saying 'There is no escape. There is no reason'. He tried the door beside the message, but it won't budge.

Hope tried to pull the first cord but the lights are off instead. He pulled it back and the lamp turned back on. The second cord blew green gas. Luckily he managed to duck before the gas could enter his system. The third cord he pulled made a mannequin head fall through the ceiling. It broke, splattering red liquid everywhere, making it a bloody mess. The fourth cord he pulled done nothing.

Shaking his head, Hope went to the corner and spotted a tile different than others. It was white with the image of a violet rose on it. The tile reminded him so much of Ayla.

_I'll find you..._

* * *

**A/N: END!**

**Noel: This is not going to be a crossover, right?  
Mary: Yep! You just added me!**

**No freaking way! Even if I added Mary, she'll do the role of another OC. I made her older because I'm certain that someone around nine year-old will fit into the story. Well, uh... Mary and Ib belongs to Kouri.**

**Oh, well ^^" Hopefully there are no 'Paradox Endings' at the time. I'll do the real (main) storyline first, and then by time I'll slip more endings into the story. See you soon.**

**~ Crystal**


	10. Chapter 8: Something Worth Trying

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I'm still thinking of how to begin the story I needed to submit for a writing competition. That alone took DAYS to complete.**

**Right, since Hope is separated from Ayla and Mary, he's submitted into Team Five! Oh God, this story is getting more and more complicated.**

**Oh well, just enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

_- Team Four's POV -_

Vanille and Fang broke through a door and found themselves in a dim room.

Fang turned around and tried the doorknob, but it won't budge. "It's locked." She said, banging her fist to the wooden door. She looked down and spotted a rather short but tipped staff and picked it up. "Might be useful." She said.

"We just... we just left Lightning. Will she be okay?" Vanille asked to her friend. Fang shrugged in reply. "I hope so. All this running around and seeing mad artworks started to annoy me."

They walked down the corridor and found a small button at the wall, with a note beneath it saying 'press me'. Fang pressed it and the room lit up, but all paintings inside turned their sharp, red eyes at them as if watching their every movement. She pressed it again to turn the lights off and the paintings closed their eyes.

"Vanille, stay close and don't do anything stupid." Fang said and gripped the staff tightly. Vanille nodded and walked closer to her. They continued the journey down the dark corridor and found five doors with alternating colors. Vanille tried the rightmost yellow door but it was locked, of course. A sentence appeared on the floor beneath her feet;

_Which one could it be, hm?_

The words sounded challenging. Vanille frowned at the sentence and tried the door beside it, a purple door. It creaked at first and opened. The two entered it and found a switch. Fang pressed it and the lights turned on, the painting of a Lady in Green at the room's end.

At the bright light, the painting shrieked and broke out of the frame. The lady crawled quickly to them and they slammed the door shut after exiting the room. Vanille's chest heaved uncontrollably from the sudden shock. She tried the center door, a blue one, and it opened, revealing a large room.

There was nothing inside but five headless statues. The door slammed shut on its own and Vanille let out a yelp. Three switches appeared in the room's corners and two of the statues moved. "Hit the right switch! Quickly!" Fang yelled and went for one of the switches at the room's leftmost corner.

Acting quickly, Vanille evaded a blow from the green statue and went for the yellow switch beside it. She stepped on it but the switch activated a yellow statue in time for Fang to hit the correct switch. The two escaped the room and closed the door before the statues reached it. They decided to try the fifth and final door, and entered it.

Fang grunted at the room's content. Vanille never knew what made her friend do so, but she saw a lot of red-eyed sheep dolls with wools in various colors around the room. She found a seemingly new, freshly-sharpened knife on the floor and picked it up, and a sentence appeared from it's previous spot on the floor;

_Please play with us! We'll have lots and lots of fun!_

Vanille averted her gaze to the knife in her hands. Another sentence appeared beside a blue sheep doll, 'Come with us! There will be only you, me and our friends'. Vanille looked at Fang, who was ready to strike the dolls anytime, staff in hand. She looked back to the knife. More and more sentences appeared near the dolls;

_Oh come on! We'll always be there for you!_

_Come into a fun world where there will be no sorrow at all!_

The words replayed in her mind continuously. The dolls seems tempting, but... if she accepted their offer, that means ditching Fang here. No more having her company, no more having her protection. Just her and the stupid dolls. A new sentence appeared beside the previous doll;

_Now is your time to choose.  
Your friend Fang or us. It's up to you, Vanille. We'll be happy to be with you!_

Vanille looked at the knife again then to her friend. "Vanille, what are you waiting?" Fang asked, now averting her gaze from the dolls and stared into her emerald eyes. Vanille took hesitant steps to the dolls and approached the one with blue woll. She narrowed her eyes at the 'speaking' doll and suddenly raised the knife then stabbing its head.

Red liquid leaked from where the knife was embedded. Vanille withdrew the knife and stabbed it at the seams, tearing off a limb from the body. Stuffing spilled out of the 'wounds' and she stabbed it again and again until it was torn apart and almost unrecognizable. Vanille looked down to the stained knife in her hands and looked up to see that the seemingly cute sheep dolls turned into disturbing ones, with black string hair, blue felt as the skin and red eyes.

Its stitched-up smile was the worse. She turned around to Fang who was staring intently at what she had done to the doll, and gave her a smile. Vanille smiled back and went for the door with Fang, but it was locked. Locked out of nowhere. She and Fang looked at each other and tried the doorknob again, but it won't budge.

Vanille looked back at the dolls and then at the knife. "Fang, I'll try to find the key from the dolls." She suggested. Fang nodded and started hacking the doorknob with the staff, with hopes of breaking it. Vanille gave the dolls a stern glare and put a hand on her hip. She kneeled down to a group of dolls and started tearing them apart while keeping cautious eyes on the other dolls.

She brought down the knife upon a doll and it tore into two symmetrical pieces. Red liquid flowed out from inside. She tried to tear off another doll's head but it ended in the same result. Something glinted in the corner of her eyes.

Vanille turned her head to the left and saw one of the dolls withdrawing a knife. It was the largest doll in the room. From its mouth leaked red liquid and the knife it held was bloodstained. Vanille let out a gasp and started to tear the dolls faster. "Fang, quickly!"

Fang obeyed and started hacking the doorknob faster than before, creating scratches on the wooden surface. The doll laughed and advanced towards Vanille, breaking off into a sprint. It was quite fast for its size and it was inching closer and closer to her. She let out a terrified scream when she saw the doll only two feet away from her.

Vanille tore a doll and found a silver key. She stood up quickly and ran to the door before the doll could reach her and unlocked the door. The two escaped the room and slammed the door shut in time for the knife to tear through the wood. Fang snatched the key from Vanille and locked the door. "Next time, I don't want to see them again." Fang commented and pocketed the key.

Vanille, still holding the knife, looked at the object in her hands and let out a sigh. "Fang, I'm sorry."

"For what?" Fang questioned, putting her hands on her hips. "I... wanted to kill you after picking up the knife." Fang's jade orbs widened momentarily and she let out a sigh. "The dolls wanted me to kill you. They said they wanted to play with me. But 'playing' with them means ditching you here." Vanille confessed and looked at Fang instead of the knife.

"I'm very sorry!" she said, almost breaking into tears. Killing her one and only friend was the greatest crime she could commit. Vanille wanted to throw away the knife so badly but it was seemingly stuck to her hand. "It's alright. Besides, it's those damn dolls' fault, not yours." Fang said with a shrug.

"And now, I'm gonna make sure that we'll get outta this hell." She finished. "Y-You would?" Vanille asked with disbelief. Getting out of this place was the first thing in her to-do list, but the probability to do so was at the lowest point. "Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I?" Fang replied and gave her an assuring look.

Vanille nodded and wiped her unshed tears away. She decided to keep the knife in case of anything that might happen later. As long as she is with Fang, she was certain that nothing too bad will ever happen.

* * *

_- Team One's POV -_

One of the paintings in the hallway slid down the wall. "Someone pulled this." Mary said, examining the painting. Ayla knew that it must be Hope. Who else would want to visit some kind of place like this?

Ayla reached the painting and took it off the wall. She laid it on the gap on the floor, but saw a blue triangular object beside the hole. "Hey, let's push this one off!" Mary said with a giggle and pushed the object—whatever it may be, into the hole. Ayla laid the painting over the hole and the two crossed to the other side, still keeping their carefulness.

They went to the west and into an empty hallway. "Hey Ayla, can I ask you something?" Mary said. "Sure, get it over with." Ayla replied. "Umm... is Hope your... you-know-what..."

"No." Ayla replied. "I knew him. Everyone in the whole Academia knew him. But I just had met him... here. That's it." Mary nodded in recognition, "Oh, I see. Are your family nice?" Ayla nodded, but confused at the eleven year-old girl's question. "That's... good. I wanna get out soon." Mary said with a sigh.

They went down the hallway and into a literally empty room except for a painting on the wall. Ayla jotted down a note for help and stuck it to the wall, only to find Mary gone. "Mary! Don't go anywhere!" Ayla yelled out and saw the girl coming out of a room near the desk. "I got a key from there!" she giggled, pointing at the painting.

The title was 'Fisherman'. It's quite weird; a shoreline, a boat at the middle of the sea, but no fisherman. They turned to the three doors near the painting. Mary tried the nearest door, but it won't budge. She tried the other door and the two went inside. Strangely, there was no color in the room. Not at all, even their skin and clothing turned colorless.

"We can't cross." Ayla said when she found a large gap on the floor. They returned to the previous 'Fisherman' room and tried the final door, but it was locked. There was a panel there, with a picture of a painting displayed on it. "It looks like a marvelous night..." Ayla mumbled and typed 'Marvelous Night' into the panel—just trying.

The door unlocked and the two went inside. It was a safe-room that appears like a small library of some sorts. Mary sat down on the floor next to a bookshelf while Ayla went to the other three and pulled out a book. She frowned at the title, 'A Girl's Last Days'.

_Once upon a time, there was a little girl. The girl went with her parents to an art gallery. But, all of a sudden, the girl realized that she was lost and alone._

_She searched through the gallery, but found no trace of her parents nor the exit out of the demented place. Scared, helpless, lonely, hungry and thirsty, she fell and hurt herself, putting her frail body past the limit. Her life ended in misery without any trace of happiness._

Ayla flipped the pages and found the picture of a collapsed little girl under a flight of stairs. She story sounded very familiar—yet it was what that actually happened right now. "Hey, try putting the key in here!" she jerked as if electrocuted at Mary's cheerful voice.

Ayla walked over to a small keyhole in the wall that Mary was standing in front of. She inserted a key they found a moment ago and something clicked, but nothing happened at all. She looked around and found a tile different than others; it was a plain silver tile amidst black ones.

The tile looked very familiar. She let out a sigh at the sight and sat down on the floor, thinking of no one but Hope.

* * *

Hope almost jumped back in shock when an object broke through the ceiling. It was a blue triangular object, but he couldn't decipher what object it was.

He looked around and found a triangular hole on the floor. He pushed the object into the hole and something clicked. It was a perfect fit. Hope opened the door and found one of those disturbing blue dolls and some text beside it.

_Hello there Hope, I don't wanna be alone, so take me with you!_

Hope shook his head at the words. He decided to ignore it and walked through the hallway. He turned back and the doll disappeared without a trace from its spot. _Weird, _he thought. When he turned around, the doll was in front of him.

_Hey, why aren't you taking me?_

"I'm sorry." He replied as if the doll could hear him. He walked further and grunted when the doll appeared out of nowhere again.

_Why are you ignoring me? Do you hate me?_

"In one sense of word, I do." Hope said flatly and went right. He put up a blank face, which was hard to perform, when the overly-friendly doll showed up again. It had an almost half-sad half-pleading expression on its face as if begging for him to take it, which it had done since some moment ago.

_Hey, play with me! I know lots of fun things we can do! Really!_

He ignored the doll's 'pleads' and continued his way down the hallway. He almost sighed in annoyance when the blue doll showed up again in front of him.

_I've got lots of friends too! I'll introduce you to them!_

Still Hope ignored it and left the doll alone. The doll was too stubborn for him to take care of with that annoying stitched-up smile. He turned his head around to make sure that the doll wasn't following him anymore and turned around, nearly kicking the doll when it popped out again.

_Be here forever..._

He widened his eyes at the text and decided to ignore it the umpteenth time today. He went left and found a door at the hallway's end, with the _doll _blocking it. Again. "Are you going to keep following me?" he questioned to no one but the doll and kneeled in front of it.

Hope stared intently into its crimson eyes. "I don't want to stay and play with you. Enough of this, and stop following me around." He said. He tried very hard to fight the urge of kicking the overly-friendly doll to the wall and leave, but who knows what will happen?

He picked the doll up and set it aside gently. He stood back up and opened the door, and found several text saying the same statement on the walls and floor; 'TAKE ME'.

Hope tried the only door but it was locked. A click sounded and he tried it again, and it opened, revealing a room. He tried the door inside, but the doorknob was strangely cold. _It's very cold... _he thought and warmed up his hands first before opening it. He went left and saw a door with the same doll blocking it.

_I'll always be with you. My home is just nearby, and I'd like you to come in and play!_

Hope sighed. Never did once he found out something this annoying to deal with. He looked around and found a door with a green gem on it. He opened the door and found a library. Looking around, Hope found a book on the floor, picked it up and reading it.

_Terror_

_Being alone... is fearful. A group of two people can have relief along their way. A group of three people_

Sadly, the rest of the page is torn off. "Maybe the vines separated us because there are three of us walking around near the Flowers of Jealousy..." he mumbled. He returned to the hallway and opened the door beside the doll.

There are seven pedestals in the room and a giant painting palette was at the room's end. Hope walked over to it and read the sign aloud, "'Collect the seven balls of paint, then the room will be colored, and your bridge will be made'. Maybe it's something that Ayla and Mary needed."

He left the strange room and wandered around. Hope noticed a particularly large painting nailed to the wall titled 'Fishing Hook'. He ignored it and found a table blocking a door with a blue vase and a white rose inside of it. Hope tried pushing the table away but it won't budge. It was small but strangely heavy to move around. He looked to the white rose and found a note on the table;

_Come on Hope, if you want to help them, take this. I'll give you second chances..._

Hope read the note over and over. If he picked up the rose, his life will be chained to it. But if he didn't take it, he'll never help those two. "I agree." He said to no one and picked up the rose, putting it inside his jacket pocket. Hope pushed the table away with ease now and gone through the door.

* * *

**A/N: Long chapter. Right?**

**Hint: There will be a 'Paradox Ending' after this chapter, I'll think of it right now.**

**~ Crystal**


	11. ENDING III

**A/N: A 'Paradox Ending' for Vanille and Fang. Enjoy!**

* * *

_- Re-cap -_

_Now is your time to choose.  
Your friend Fang or us. It's up to you, Vanille. We'll be happy to be with you!_

Vanille furrowed her eyebrows. She looked down to the knife and then at the dolls. "Vanille, what are you waiting for?" she heard Fang's voice from behind her. She just gave the dolls an empty stare. Being with the dolls might be fun, but what about Fang?

Vanille never had fun since her childhood. First her mother, then her father and the rest of the family. She got sent into the orphanage and often had bullying due to her being a weakling, as they say. The sentences that appeared near the blue sheep doll replayed over and over in her mind. If she stayed, she would have fun that she never had before. If she left, there would be no happiness. Just sorrow.

Standing shakily, Vanille walked over to the dolls and kneeled beside the 'talking' doll. She looked down at the knife in her hand and raised it, attempting to stab and tear apart the disturbing thing.

Her knife stopped inches away from its head. Vanille drew the knife back and tried to do it again, but she found that she was unable to do so. Shaking her head in annoyance, she shut her eyes tight and hesitated for a while.

Vanille opened her eyes again for a moment and gave the dolls a blank face. Then a grin formed on her lips, a grin that resembled a lunatic's. She looked down at the knife and stared into its shiny surface and sharp edge. She looked to Fang from the corner of her eyes and nodded slightly,

"Let's play."

* * *

Fang raised her eyebrow at the younger girl. She slumped her shoulders a bit and lowered the staff she was holding. "Alright now, what the hell is going on—"

When Vanille turned around, a maniacal grin was plastered to her expressions. She raised her knife to her eye level and giggled at it. "Vanille, what—"Fang was cut off when Vanille's giggles turned into a crazed sort of laughter.

Vanille didn't reply. She just laughed and laughed and laughed, non-stop while still staring to the knife. She walked over to a painting displaying the sheep dolls and took it off the wall. Fang backed away from her friend in shock. The dolls weren't what she feared; she feared that Vanile will be the victim of the damn dolls.

Fang raised her staff and prepared to dodge any blows her friend had decided to deliver. "Enough!" Vanille shrieked, lifting the frame over her head and walked slowly to Fang. "Vanille, stop! This isn't you!" she yelled, trying to snap her friend out of her insane state.

Vanille didn't hear her. She giggled and once she had cornered Fang, she raised the frame above her head as high as she could and whacked Fang on the head with it. "Gah! What the hell was that for?!" Fang yelled, rubbing her head in pain. She noticed a bit of blood on her fingertips. Vanille tossed the painting away and took out the knife, waving it in front of her threateningly.

Fang broke into a sprint away from Vanille. She knew that the girl can't catch up with her, but in her demonic state, all of that would be possible to happen. She rounded a group of dolls and stabbed one with her staff, testing of what would happen if she did so.

Vanille's emerald eyes glinted dangerously and she ran faster to catch up with Fang. She raised the knife, ready to stab her anytime soon. "Wake up, Vanille!" Fang yelled out desperately while trying to dodge the blows that Vanille delivered.

The knife got stuck on the staff and the two were engaged in a tug-of-war for their respective 'weapons'. Vanille managed to pull the knife off of the staff and walked over to Fang. Vanille retreated back and walked beside a window. Her small fist went flying through it and she grasped tightly at a large glass shard, though her palm and fist were bleeding from the smaller shards.

Fang managed to step sideways when the glass shard went flying through the air and scraped her outer left thigh. She didn't care for it—what she cared right now was to snap Vanille out of this trance! She has to!

She was cornered and Vanille was advancing towards her. "Vanille... please don't," Fang said in a pleading tone, letting out heavy breaths and grunts. "If you want to kill me now... do it. But if you want me to live... please stop. I beg of you. Remember the other entire people we had met here, remember them! We have to find Lightning! STOP!"

Vanille didn't obey her. She was still advancing towards her, knife in hand. Then her hands tightened around Fang's neck, choking her. "I've had enough of you!" Vanile shrieked, drawing back the knife and stabbing her on her lower right thigh.

Pain ripped through Fang's body as she coughed. Vanille withdrew the knife and stabbed her repeatedly on her lower torso, "I want you to die, die, DIEEEE!" the younger girl yelled, laughing maniacally as she plunged the knife into Fang's throat.

Everything went black as death's hand slowly reached out to whisk her away.

* * *

"I want you to die, die, DIEEEE!"

That yell escaped Vanille as she plunged the knife into Fang's throat and stabbing her repeatedly in that spot. Fang's eyes rolled backwards as her body went limp in her grasp. Vanille delivered a final blow by stabbing Fang on the head then at the heart to ensure that she's dead right now.

She released the battered and bloodied corpse and the body dropped to the floor with a thump. Vanille tossed the bloodstained knife to the floor and heaved. A grin formed in her lips soon after, "Now, where were we?" she questioned and turned around, but gasped when the previously cute sheep dolls changed drastically.

They were now nothing but ugly, blue dolls with piercing red eyes and a wide, ear-to-ear smile. The smile alone was stitched-up. Vanille stared blankly into the room, which now turned into the previously creepy atmosphere. Something snapped inside of her and she realized what she had done.

Vanille lifted her bloodied hands to her eye level. She can't believe of what that had just happened. She had killed Fang—her best friend since they met at the orphanage. "F-Fang...?" she muttered, turning around to Fang's lifeless body and dropped to the floor. "I just hurt... her... Fang... p-please don't say that you're dead... Fang...? Do you... hear me? Do you... see me?"

No response.

Fresh tears pooled in her emerald eyes. Vanille started sobbing when no signs of life are seen from her friend. "Please... don't leave me... I need you... to be... to be here... with me..." she sobbed, unable to control and fight back the tears anymore.

Still, there was no response.

"Fang... please be here! I don't want you to be dead! Fang! Please... please... don't leave me..." those words of regret escaped her. She was wrong—she had followed the dolls' orders to turn back against her own friend. Her own _friend. _It was her fault. It was hers for all eternity. None could bring Fang back to life.

Vanille looked to the knife that she had dropped moments ago. She grabbed it and stared into its no longer shiny surface. Her fingertips traced the sharp edges and she didn't realize that she was cutting herself. Fang's blood smeared her fingertips—but she didn't care.

Vanille stood up and turned around to the dolls. "You tricked me!" she yelled accusingly at the dolls, pointing the knife to them. "You told me to kill _Fang_! How dare you!" she said with a small sob at her friend's name, tears still cascading down her cheeks. She glared at the largest doll in the room with a stare full of hatred. Words appeared in messy crimson substance in front of it;

_So what? It's not our fault._

_It's YOURS for listening to us. We just wanted you to play... a game. A game of ending someone's life. Isn't that what you had done? You killed your own friend. It was your fault. It was yours. You had satisfied our bloodlust by doing what we yearned the most._

_It's not our fault. IT IS YOUR FAULT FOR OBEYING US._

Vanille burst into tears at the words. Clear droplets fell onto her lap and onto the accursed knife. "It was my... fault..." she sobbed, "My... fault..."

Crying like a helpless little girl won't help anything. Vanille glanced at the knife on her lap and then back to Fang's corpse. She grabbed the knife and gave it a blank stare. Just a stab won't hurt. Then she'll see Fang again, to say sorry to her after making her suffer so much.

Vanille aimed the knife at her heart and shut her eyes tight, bracing for impact. She longed to see Fang again. The world was a pretty much bleak place without her presence—so why live? She'd rather stab herself and bleed to death rather than living in a world where Fang did not exist.

"Fang... I'm sorry."

- Ending III: Corrupt Sisters -

* * *

**A/N: Tragic endings. I loved making them.**

**Oh well, there will be more 'Paradox Endings' later, but like I said, most of them are bad endings. I promised you this in the previous chapter—right?**

**Sorry for the readers of In the Eyes of the Priestess, I'm still too damn lazy to type it again! I'm not too busy at the time, but please, just bear it with me. Maybe I can complete this one ASAP and then continuing the story—you can see how fast I typed.**

**See you, and once again, I'm sorry! *bows apologetically***

**~ Crystal**


	12. Chapter 9: Stuck in the Fabricated World

_- Team Two's POV -_

Noel jerked awake and blinked rapidly. "That was a good sleep..." he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "Wait." He said and ran his hand on the floor.

"What is this place? This-this felt like crayon!" he yelled, clearly not getting the fact that the whole place is made of crayon. He looked around—the walls, the floor and the objects are all made of crayon. Even those smelt like oil pastels.

Noel found himself in a weird house-like structure. He peeked through a crayon window and saw the scenery. Out there were trees, birds flying, lakes and parks. And again, they're all made of the same material; crayon, that is. He saw a pink house at the distance. "Does this mean I'm... in the sketchbook?" he said, sighing.

"Serah," he said all of a sudden, remembering the fact that he isn't alone in this world full of terror. "Serah!" he yelled, breaking into a run through the house structure.

After a while looking around, Noel found the younger Farron lying facedown on the floor beneath a painting. It was an empty one, all white with a very small sentence at the center. "Welcome... to... to the Sketchbook." He read the words. He kneeled beside Serah and shook her to wake her up, "Hey Serah, wake up."

No response.

"Hah, I guess I gotta carry you around, then." Noel said. He managed to get Serah on his back after picking up her rose and slung her arms over his shoulders. "Geez, you're pretty heavy..." he muttered. Her breathing was calm and controlled, nowhere ragged. She was still asleep like as if nothing had ever happened.

Noel walked around and found a door to get out of the structure. He saw the scenery in front of him, and realized that the scenery was actually creepy.

The 'birds' he saw were actually crows in fact. The tree is dried and the flowers along the park were withered. The sky was obviously cloudy and thunder crackled in the background. The wind blew hard on his face, making him narrow his eyes.

He saw an upside-down house at the distance—might as well try to visit the structure. He walked over to it and braced himself for anything that might happen inside.

Serah slowly opened her eyes and blinked.

For this one time, she knew that she's not walking. Someone was carrying her on his or her back. "L-Lightning...?" she muttered, seeing that her sister was the one carrying her. "Where am I?"

"Hey, welcome back." She heard a familiar voice. It wasn't Lightning, but Noel. "How's your sleep?" he questioned while walking. "Good enough... and where were we?" Serah replied. "Someplace called 'Sketchbook'. Everything here is made of crayon." Noel answered.

Serah looked around and found a pink house at the horizon. The pink house seems familiar... it was the one they saw when they read the small sketchbook they found when they were trying to track Lightning down. And that would mean... they're in the book because they read it at the first place.

"Hey Noel," she called out. "Hm?" Noel said. "Uh... thanks."

"For what?" from his tone of voice, she could see that he was raising an eyebrow. "For being there when my sister wasn't around." Serah replied with a slight blush. "Like now, you're carrying me."

"What, you want me to put you down?" Noel asked. "Of course. That would be rude of me to not walk while I can." Serah answered. He gave her a sigh, "Alright." He put her down and handed her the pink rose. She let out a giggle and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He gave her a dumbfounded stare.

Serah just laughed out loud at Noel's expression. He let out a nervous laughter and joined in with her. The dark sky and terrifying conditions was forgotten for a brief moment.

_'Well then... I guess we can make it. You hear me, Lightning? We'll find you soon. Now I know what I must learn here, with Noel; as long as we're together, nothing will stop us._

_I know... I know love brings strength.'_

* * *

"Oomph!"

Hope let out a muffled cry when he entered a room practically filled with red gas. He narrowed his eyes and looked around the room, seeing a violet orb at one of the room's corners. He rushed to it and grabbed it. "Maybe this is one of the 'balls of paint'?" he questioned no one.

The red orb was squishy and surely he can break it. It vanished after a while. Dull pain coursed through his body and he saw the white rose. There were only six petals. "Alright... one step, one petal. I have to be careful." Hope said to himself.

He took a careful route back outside and looked at his rose. Only one petal left. He dipped it into the everlasting blue vase and it was restored. He returned to find a painting titled 'Juggling'. Hope looked at the balls the person juggled and one of them appeared to be like a ball of paint.

"_What year was I born?"_

A strange voice appeared from the painting. "I'm sure Ayla had told me before... what about four hundred and twenty one?" he replied. _"Correct!" _the painting replied and a blue ball of paint rolled out of the frame and dropped onto the floor. It vanished.

He decided to check the pedestal room and found the balls of paint he had collected floating over the pedestals. Hope returned to the library and searched the bookshelves. He pulled out a book titled 'Essentials of Color' and a green ball of paint rolled out and dropped. It vanished as well into nothingness. Hope went out and looked around when he saw the doll. He let out a half-irritated sigh.

_Hey Hope, what're you doing? I wanna play too..._

He left the doll alone and found a yellow ball of paint. When he roamed the area, he found nothing. He returned to the gas room and saw an umbrella. He rushed to it and picked it up, going out of the room and restoring his rose.

Hope carried the umbrella around and a fishing hook fell out of the painting with the same title. "Maybe Ayla and Mary needed this?" he questioned himself and hooked the umbrella onto it. The hook went back inside the painting and the umbrella was whisked away with it.

Hope returned to the red gas room to find anything else to grab, pull or even break.

* * *

Going around the gallery was more confusing now that Ayla and Mary's way were hindered by a long, narrow corridor full of red gas. Ayla tried to step in but each step she took rotted off a petal from her rose. She decided against it, then.

"Hey, hey, over here!"

Mary called out to her while jumping up and down, pointing to a painting. Ayla went back to where Mary was and saw an umbrella inside the 'Fisherman' painting. The fisherman waved out the umbrella and threw it from within the frame.

Ayla caught the object. "Wait, does the 'Lady without Her Umbrella' needs this?" she said, examining the object. "Maybe! Let's give this to her!" Mary replied with a giggle and skipped into the room with the aforementioned painting while humming a song to herself.

They returned to the Lady and Ayla tapped the frame. The lady's expression changed and now she was looking directly at the two, smiling when she saw her red umbrella. Ayla slipped the object inside the frame and the lady grabbed it, mouthing a 'thank you'. She assumed her usual pose then, now smiling.

_Drip, drip._

"Is this... water?" Mary said, looking at the ceiling. Then it started raining inside of the room. She yelped and made a dash out of the room as the two were slowly getting drenched. They went out and saw that it was the only room where it rained.

"What the...?"

* * *

Lightning rounded a corridor and found herself back at the beginning. She let out an irritated sigh and went for the three doors. One of them was unlocked, meaning that someone had gone inside.

She opened it and found a small key inside the room. She picked it up and it felt as if it was made from crayon. Lightning looked around and found a small sketchbook lying on the floor, and she decided to open it. Her eyes widened upon seeing a familiar picture next to the page with the picture of a pink house.

"Serah...?" Lightning raised an eyebrow at the picture of her sister. Somehow Serah's drawing is inside the sketchbook, but who drew this? She flipped the pages and found a picture of her sister hanging upside down from a rope above a lake. "Not again," she growled, closing the sketchbook and tossing it away.

Lightning found a small box which she thought was the sketchbook's case. On it was the letter 'Y' and the other letters are scratched out. She jogged out of the room and saw nothing. Well, literally nothing but a little blue doll sitting on a shelf. It appears to be disturbing with its red eyes and stitched-up smile. Next to it was some text;

_Hello! Do you want to find a way out?_

"Yeah." Lightning replied curtly. The doll suddenly vanished from existence and Lightning ignored it. She went down the hallway pass some paintings depicting her sister dead. She couldn't bear to see this anymore. Lightning nearly hit the doll when it appeared out of nowhere with another text in front of it;

_Come! I'll show you where and what to do! Surely you wanna do it soon, right?_

It disappeared again. Blue footprints in the shape of a doll's feet appeared in front of her and a sentence appeared on the wall. 'Come, follow the clues!' it said, and Lightning followed the small footprints. She passed by a painting depicting Serah stabbed with three scalpels in her throat. Lightning winced and turned her gaze from it.

Wrong move.

At the left was a more gruesome sight. It was Serah with nails hammered mercilessly to her face and a dagger stabbed her head from the right. Lightning decided to look down then to keep her sanity intact. Still she followed the footprints down the slowly darkening hallway.

* * *

Noel and Serah went inside the upside down house and found a bucket inside. Noel grabbed it and they went out of the house together.

"Hey, look at this." Serah called out and motioned to an un-budded tulip on a patch of dirt. "Why not water it?" Noel suggested and they went down the brick path and found a lake. He got some water and they returned to the tulip, watering it.

It bloomed and a key fell out of it. Serah picked it up and they resumed the journey through the weird Sketchbook world. They saw a pink house and a black house standing next to each other. Noel went to the pink house but the doors are locked. They went into the black house instead and found that everything inside was black, just like the name.

_Thankfully I'm not claustrophobic... _Noel thought. He tried to find anything, but it was hard to see in a place this dark. They walked around and found a large painting nailed to the wall. The golden plate beneath it says 'Eternal Darkness'. It was the painting of an everlasting eclipse.

Serah wrote something in her memo about the painting. Surely this 'Eternal Darkness' is a suspicious painting, judging by the appearance of the black house. They went around and down the stairs into a basement. The room was poorly lit and there was a black candle on a desk with a withered black rose. "I have to check this out," Serah said and kneeled to the floor beside a hole.

She put her hand inside and tried to find anything. "Ow!" she yelped when something bit her and a petal dropped off her rose. She looked at her fingers and it was bloodied. The wound looked like something with sharp canines had bit her.

"What's there?" Noel asked and peeked into the hole. There was a small lighter inside, but there was no sign of anything that bit his companion. Unfortunately, his hand was too big to fit inside. They gave up trying to get the lighter out and went back to the house's first floor. "Maybe the answer's up there." Serah said and pointed to a staircase. A black one, for sure.

They went up to the second floor and saw a painting depicting a blue doll with red eyes and a blue sheep doll with red eyes, a thin black line separating the items. It said 'The Difference'.

They ignored The Difference and went around looking for things. They started to give up hope of finding something to light up the black house and returned to the first floor, only to find that the door to the first floor was gone as if never existing in the first place.

Good, they're trapped.

* * *

Hope saw a pull-cord at some point looking around the red gas room. He had gone around so many times to search things and heal countless times until now.

He took cautious steps to the pull-cord and looked at his rose. Only one petal left. He had managed to get as close as possible to the cord and only three more steps would reach it. "Now what to do?" he mumbled, looking around for things. Hope saw a vase with water inside. "Alright... if it's the time for me to die here, then I'll die."

Hope aimed his rose to throw into the vase and tossed it. Thankfully it landed in place and the petals were restored. He took exactly three steps to the cord and pulled it, and the red gas dissolved into nothingness. He smiled a bit and went to his rose to pick it up and returned it into his pocket. Something creaking sounded from the distance.

Hope returned to the corridor. The doll was still there, stubborn of getting him to play with it. He ignored the disturbing thing and went to the door with the green gem. The gem turned into an apple tree and he went inside, expecting to be thrown with apples.

None of his suspicion happened. The bookshelves moved instead and something pink appeared out of nowhere. He grabbed it and it vanished. Only two colors left to be collected.

* * *

"Hey, look here! The gas is gone!" Mary said cheerfully and went to the narrow corridor. Ayla followed her to make sure that she didn't do anything stupid.

They found a door at the corridor's end. Mary opened it and they found a set of stairs heading to who-knows-where. "I bet this can take us to the lower floors!" she giggled. Ayla raised an eyebrow at her manners. _Can she not see the red statue? _Ayla thought and looked to the statue blocking the way to the stairs.

She looked around and found a painting of a yellow, almost gold, crescent moon with someone sleeping on it. She recognized this one as a painting titled 'Aspiration'. Ayla spotted a silver tile with a picture of a white rose instead of the usual blank ones. _He found a rose... _she thought, walking over to the tile.

Ayla decided to the blocked staircase and attempted to push the large statue away, but it won't budge. When she looked around, Mary was mysteriously gone.

_Not again..._

* * *

**A/N: Still thinking of another 'Paradox Ending', heheheh. It'll be a bad one for sure, because I rarely made the happy ones.**

**Don't forget to read and review!**

**~ Crystal**


	13. Chapter 10: A Shocking Truth

Hope rummaged through the bookshelves and pulled out a book titled 'A List of Guertena's Works'. He opened it and flipped through the pages. There were pictures of the 'Death of the Individual', 'Aspiration', and 'Your Dark Figure', and so on. He read through most of the content when a topic made his stomach drop. He read the content aloud;

_Mary (? ? ? ?)_

_The last artwork of Guertena's life. While the girl appears almost life-like, naturally, she is not based on a real person. She is simply a figment of Guertena's imagination and he poured his feelings especially to this beloved painting of a little girl..._

Hope turned the next page and his expression dropped even more. It was the picture of a painting in a wooden frame. The painting was one of a little girl wearing an all-green long-sleeved shirt and a knee-length skirt holding a yellow rose, surrounded by larger yellow roses and thorny vines. The girl looked _exactly _like the Mary they met along the way.

"No way," Hope said, reading the topic once again. "Mary... she's a painting. She's with Ayla right now... she might do something dangerous to her. Or even worse... kill her." He shut the book and returned it to the bookshelf. "I... have to be quick!"

Hope broke off into a sprint and left the room. Little did he know, he never noticed the mysterious ear painting beside the bookshelf that had been eavesdropping all time.

* * *

Mary skipped happily along the dark hallway. "Big sis!" she exclaimed and giggled when she saw the painting of a Lady in Red. She gave her fellow artwork a wave and a smile. The lady waved and smiled back at her, red eyes showing friendliness. Mary continued making her way down the hall and eventually stumbled upon the painting of a set of wide lips. "Hello Tattletale!" she greeted.

"Oh, hello too Mary!" Tattletale replied, forming into a smile. "Got any news?" Mary asked.

"Sure do!" Tattletale replied. "This is what I heard from Strained Ear as usual! Some random guy went into the room where the book about your Daddy's artworks is there and he read about it! Are you sure you wanna listen to the story? You wanna listen, right? Right?"

"Sure!" though her tone was cheerful, Mary expression was angered. This 'random guy' Tattletale is speaking about was no ordinary person. She knew it must be Hope discovering her secrets.

"So it's like this," Tattletale began, the hyper painting clicking its tongue. "Well, this page is what he read, the page about you! He read it aloud, foolishly, and he said it when he reached this; 'Mary, the last artwork of Guertena's life. While the girl appears almost life-like, naturally, she is not based on a real person. She is simply a figment of Guertena's imagination and he poured his feelings especially to this beloved painting of a little girl...' And then—"

"Shh!" Mary shushed the painting. "I don't want you to speak anymore about that page. Nor ever again. But is that true?"

"Yep! Sure, me and the ear never lied to you, right?" then Tattletale began humming a merry song to itself. Mary left her friend and drew out her palette knife, stomping her way back to Ayla. "How dare he know..." she muttered, eyebrows knotting in anger.

A mannequin head went out of one of the doors, and began speaking in a voice that only her and the other artworks can hear; "Why in a hurry, Mary?" the head questioned. Mary sealed her mouth shut and walked pass the head. It popped out again from thin air in front of her. "Why don't you answer me? Something in your mind?"

"None of your business." Mary spat and kicked the head aside. A blood tear rolled down its cheek. It appeared again in front of her, and she let out an irritated sigh. "Why did you hurt me? Do you hate me? It hurts, Mary... I'm still your family."

Mary wordlessly delivered a rough kick to the mannequin head's face. She walked away for some time and turned around to make sure that it isn't following her anymore. She widened her eyes in anger when the head appeared again after she turned around. "Mary, do you want to go and leave us? We're your family... you're abandoning us. Daddy will not let his beloved masterpiece do this. Please stay..." It spoke in a soft, pleading tone.

Mary steamed. _Daddy will surely let me! You will, won't you Daddy? _She thought. Mary kneeled in front of the door and stabbed its left eye. "Mary! What are you doing?! Stop!" it screamed as she stabbed its other eye and several points on its forehead.

"Please! Just! Shut! UP!" Mary yelled in anger as she stabbed the mannequin head repeatedly, splattering red liquid everywhere on the walls and floor. It started gurgling, unable to speak from the 'injuries' and eventually died from the stabbing. Mary kicked the broken remains away, not caring the red paint smearing her shoes. She stomped her way back to Ayla while trying to calm down.

_You'll all die for revealing my biggest secret... you will. Do you agree of what I'm doing right now, Daddy? See what your beloved daughter has become..._

* * *

Hope rushed frantically around the corridors and went to the door with the cold doorknob. The previous doll was there and strangely, its stomach looked larger than before. Some text appeared next to it;

_I picked up something good! I'm making it my treasure!_

Hope knelt to the doll's eye level and watched as its stomach slowly tore open. A red ball of paint rolled out and it vanished. The doll stirred and dusted its torn purple dress, and it squeaked when it saw him. It scurried away and into the 'cold-knob' door. He followed it and into the room, widening his eyes as his brain tried to process and take in the decor of the room.

Disturbing blue dolls of all shapes, sizes and dresses filled the room; staring to him with their piercing, creepy red eyes. Hope gulped slightly and went to the blank painting at the room's end and picked up a white ball of paint. It vanished like the others. There are seven of them already. Hope turned to the door and tugged at it...

... It was locked.

"Huh?" he said in confusion and twisted the doorknob again. It won't work. Text appeared on the door, saying 'Come on Hope, let's have another treasure hunt. Who? Who? Who has the key?'. Hope realized the condition he was in and rushed to a doll, tearing it open. Blue paint spilled out. He moved to another doll and tore its stomach, and stuffing came out.

He saw something slowly coming out of the blank painting. It was a giant knife-wielding doll, staring at his eyes and reaching out its strangely clawed hands. Hope became more frantic at the time and tore open the dolls quicker. He found a gold key and used it on the door and slammed it shut behind him once he got out.

"Thank goodness." Hope sighed in relief and looked around. He saw a flight of stairs heading up. "Mary..." he muttered, "Don't you dare do anything to her."

He broke into a run up the stairs to find the two.

* * *

Lightning was still following the footprints down the hallway.

The tracks were snaking around and looping endlessly as she was now getting frustrated by the accursed doll. She looked around and saw a painting, still of Serah. Lightning tried not to stare into it too long or something might happen or even worse, her sanity might slip away.

She looked right and a painting of Serah getting killed by a knife-wielding doll is seen. She tried to avert her gaze from it and looked left, but it was more grotesque than before, with a picture of her sister's corpse almost cut in half by a rusty and bloodstained chainsaw.

"I can't let myself go insane here. I have to find Serah..." Lightning muttered to herself. After around a few minutes of walking, the doll is seen again and some text appeared on the floor beside it;

_Are you getting tired, Lightning?_

Lightning didn't respond the doll's question. Another sentence appeared in front of it after she had kept herself thinking for a while. Lightning blinked in disbelief at the sentence.

_If you are, you can just rest and play with us here... I promise I'll get you to your sister again._

The doll vanished without a trace. No, there are no possible ways for her to get some rest in this damned otherworld. Lightning can only rest once she found Serah... if she was still alive, that is. She shook the horrible though of her sister dead off of her mind and continued following the annoying doll's footprints down the hallway.

Lightning continued her journey and spotted some text on the wall beneath a painting. It says 'Poor Serah, dying in our hands in this surreal world'. She dared to look up to the painting and she regretted it immediately. It was the most horrifying picture she had met ever.

A group of dolls surrounded her sister and stabbed her together, laughing. One stabbed her little sister in the throat, the other at the forehead and so on. A Lady in Red had a pink rose and was plucking it, eating the beautiful petals away. A mannequin head was happily munching on parts of her face and a statue was watching it the distance. One of the dolls wielded a large kitchen knife and was slowly cutting Serah's head off.

Lightning couldn't bear the sight. She looked down at her red rose and then at the eaten pink rose. Serah had her life chained to a rose similar to hers. Destroy the rose and she will rot away. The longer Lightning lingered in this morbid world, the harder will it be to reunite with her sister.

She eventually reached the long hallway's end and found three doors. The doll was sitting in front of the center door, one with a green check mark on it and some text was in front of it and was repeated on the green door;

_We're here! I know, I know! Pick me! Pick this door! You see the green check mark? This is your answer!_

Lightning looked to the other two doors. The left one was a red door with a red X mark on it. The right door had a blue circle on it, the wood painted similar to the symbol. At first Lightning thought the answer was the red door—but it was impossible, judging by the red X. Then the answer would be the blue door.

A sentence appeared near the doll, saying 'Why are you confused? I know the answers to your doubts laid behind this green door. So check it out, won't you?' Yes, right now Lightning was very confused of which door she had to choose.

She had only four choices; the red door, the green one, the blue one or just simply turn back.

* * *

Serah and Noel are still thinking of how to get the lighter. They were now looking around a rather large lab at the basement and found a room filled with so much gore and blood around.

Though disgusted, Serah still refused to go out from the lab. Noel had decided to wait outside to prevent himself from vomiting in front of her. She winced when she came across bits of human flesh scattered on an autopsy table. Though they appeared to be made of crayon, it looked like the real thing.

Serah passed a pool of blood on the floor and nearly slipped on it. She rummaged through the shelves to find something that might get rid of the creature—whatever it is from the hole. Serah had told Noel to keep her rose in case anything happened. Passing by a desk full of jars filled with eyeballs, she found a note stuck to the wall;

_Be careful of the pool of blood._

She kept it in her mindset while trying to look for something. Serah stumbled upon a small spray bottle filled with green liquid in one of the shelves resembling a bottle of perfume. She grabbed it and read the label plastered on its surface;

_MANDRAKE EXTRACT_

_Certain types of animals hate these.  
Spray just a little amount of it to the target creature and it will die.  
Avoid direct contact with skin and eyes. Do not consume, swallow or inhale._

Serah pocketed it and remembered not to touch and smell the fluid. When she was about to reach the door, gurgling sounded from the pool of blood. She turned around and saw a weird monster rising from it. Serah made a mad dash to the door before the thing could catch up with her and slammed the door behind her.

"Found a Mandrake Extract," she said and showed the bottle to Noel. He took the bottle from her and read the label. Nodding, he handed her rose and they returned to the main basement and Noel walked to the hole. He aimed the spray bottle at the hole and sprayed the liquid inside.

A strange screech sounded from inside. Serah reached her hand inside and grabbed the lighter and the candle. She lit it up and they went upstairs, to the Eternal Darkness. A sentence in yellow paint appeared beneath the painting;

_Don't try to burn me._

"Just burn it." Noel said, almost snatching the candle away from her. Serah nodded and they backed off as she threw the candle to the painting, effectively burning it. What remained were simply burnt paper ashes. The room suddenly lit up and the previously 'empty' walls turned filled with paintings depicting torment of humans.

The two jumped back in shock as the corpses inside the painting came to life and crawled out of the frame; shrieking and screeching madly. "Quickly!" Noel said and grabbed Serah's wrist, dragging her behind him. They dodged the painting of an armless man and another with its head cut off. They made a dash to the door and almost screamed when a painting of an eyeless boy appeared out of nowhere, blocking access to the door.

"We're trapped!" Serah yelled in panic and moved closer to Noel. Noel looked around and saw the living painting of a woman with swords driven through her flesh. He ran to it and pulled out a sword, returning to the eyeless little boy and stabbing him repeatedly.

The painting died and Serah tossed the Mandrake Extract to the ground, shattering the glass bottle. She proceeded to throw the lighter to the pool of fluid and flames lit up. They managed to escape the Black House before the flames swallowed them whole.

Shrieks erupted from inside. Serah and Noel stared in horror at the burning structure, shocked of what they had done to a part of the Sketchbook. "Come on!" Noel dragged Serah away from the location and into a safe area. They stopped somewhere far away from the house, near the Butterfly Park. "We're still alive..." she muttered in disbelief. All the jump-scares the Fabricated World has given were quite creepy.

She looked down and realized the mistake that they were standing on something. "Uh... Noel?" she called out nervously. "Yeah?" Noel turned around to her, raising an eyebrow. "I think we're standing on a trap—"

"AAAHH!"

The two fell and plummeted down to the dark abyss below.

—_Door..._

* * *

**A/N: Good news! FIVE more Paradox Endings are waiting! Three for Lightning and two for Team One! Just wait up, I'll think of the plots!**

**~ Crystal**


	14. ENDING IV

**A/N: A Paradox Ending for Lightning, two others will follow in the next two chapters. This is obviously a bad ending for her. Enjoy!**

**Oh right, thanks to Crona-Cron and gleekgirlgamingsam for adding this story to your follow and favorite list!**

**Yes, let's begin this ending...**

* * *

Lightning stared into the doll's red eyes intently, then at the green door. Somehow, an invisible force told her to go into the green door and just follow the doll's orders. Lightning glanced to the green door and read the repeated sentence on it over and over. If Serah was alive, what would she do? But if she was actually dead, then...

She shook the thought off her mind. No, Serah was alive. Her sister was just somewhere... she never knew. She was stuck in the Fabricated World just like her.

With shaky steps, Lightning walked over to the green door, the one with the check mark, and twisted the doorknob. She peeked into the room and found a red noose hanging from the ceiling over a similarly colored stool. She dared to step into the room and frowned at the two objects.

"What am I supposed to do...?" Lightning questioned with a very gentle tone of voice that was very unlike her usual self. She winced at how unusual she acted. When she stepped in fully, the door slammed shut behind her. Lightning widened her aqua eyes and twisted the doorknob. She was locked in the room.

"Open up!" Lightning yelled, banging her fist to the wooden surface. Nothing happened at all. "Damn you," Lightning cursed at the doll. The doll had told her to go inside and now she was locked alone in the room. But this wasn't the time to stop looking for Serah...

Lightning looked around for something useful. She saw a window at the room's corner, but it was useless that now it was barred. She looked down on her rose and placed it in the empty vase within the room on a small desk. "Serah..." she muttered, looking away from the noose and the stool.

Images of the horrifying paintings flooded her mind. The 'Disturbing Painting', the Serah that was cut in half, the Serah with nails hammered over her face, the Serah hanging over the lake... and most importantly, the one that was killed by the mad artworks. The 'Hanged Serah' message also added into the worst part of the gallery.

Lightning frowned. "No," she growled, looking at her rose. "She's alive. I just needed some more time to find her."

_No she's not, _the voice inside her mind retorted. _Something unexpected happened to her while you were away, not around her, tee hee hee. _It added with a giggle. "Shut up." Lightning said to no one but the mysterious voice. "I still have to find her. She's around here, somewhere..."

_Somewhere far away from you, that is. _The voice replied. _And she died in the meantime._

"She couldn't." Lightning said. _She could anytime. It could be tomorrow, the next hour, the next minute, the next second, or even worse... _Lightning slammed her fist on the desk, "I said shut up!" she yelled in both anger and annoyance at the voice, to whomever it belonged to.

_I said, it could be worse... she could die anytime without you around... you abandoned her..._

"STOP IT!" Lightning yelled, holding her head in her hands. The voice sounded very haunting to her, and never did once she fell to something this easy...

_NOW! She could die NOW! What if that actually happened?! What would you need to live on again without that precious little sister of yours?!_

Lightning grunted at the voice's words. Living on without Serah? That would be awfully terrible...

_Just give up, Claire. Your sister is dead. Go on, and do something!_

After spitting out the harsh words at her, the voice no longer sounded from within her own head. It stopped. It stopped disturbing her and haunting her. "Dammit," Lightning muttered, standing up. The voice's words burned deeply into her mind.

She tried the door again, but it won't budge. She moved on to the window, but the wooden planks barring it were too strong and thick to be broken. The window was no use, either. Lightning curled up into a ball under the window and buried her face in her knees. Feelings and emotions were quite blunt for her since joining the Corps. But this? This was the worst part of her life. Ever.

Lightning backed away from the window when red liquid leaked from the outside. It stopped flowing and formed a message on the wall, saying 'Hanged Serah'. Lightning gave it a blank stare. Some text written in blue liquid appeared on the floors beneath her rose.

_GIVE UP._

_Your precious Serah is dead...  
Dead and no longer in this world...  
You abandoned her...  
What would she feel?  
What was her death like? Painful? Heartbroken? Or maybe... suffering?_

Lightning stopped responding to the text. It sounded haunting, telling her to just give up. She walked over to it and wiped it off of the floor with her foot, making it a mess. But still, the text reappeared again no matter how many times she tried to clear it off her sight and mind.

She walked over to her rose and picked it up, twirling the flower in her hands. She remembered the 'Embodiment of Spirit' back at the real gallery, 'Beautiful at first glance, but can induce pain. It only blossoms in wholesome bodies' as the note said.

This time, Lightning walked to the noose. She touched its rough surface with her fingertips, and then she looked down at the stool. She stepped on it and looped the tough rope on her neck. She looked down at the rose again, giving it a sad glance. "Serah... I'm sorry."

Lightning tore the top off the stalk of the rose and with the last bit of her remaining strength she kicked the stool away as her life hung on the noose, fading away...

* * *

Serah gave the 'Embodiment of Spirit' a sad glance. The rose sculpture looked very familiar to her; it gave her a kindly strength. She had accidentally found a fresh pink rose inside her shirt pocket, though she never remembered how it got there.

Looking away from the large sculpture, Serah walked away from it and up, to see more artworks in the famous Guertena's art gallery. Passing by the Misshapen Diamond and the Lady in Red, she didn't even pay any attention to the other visitors around as she turned left and into the other part of the gallery.

Serah tried to remember the largest painting in the gallery with the hallway dedicated to itself. But she couldn't remember it, no matter how hard she tried to do so. Stopping in front of 'Your Dark Figure', Serah saw several people gathering in front of a painting, talking about something before leaving with a museum guide.

Curious, Serah walked to the place where the crowd previously stood. She saw it, a large painting without anything around it. The hallway was dedicated only to it.

It was the painting of a woman hanging from the ceiling on a red noose. The woman had pink hair, but she couldn't see her eye color that they were closed. She was hanging in a messy and dark room with the windows barred, and torn red petals were scattered beneath her.

The woman looked oddly familiar. Serah read the golden plate beneath the frame, and it said nothing. It was just a few scratched out words. She looked at the painting again, and at the woman. Still, the woman seemed familiar to her, but she never knew who the woman is.

"She couldn't be my sister... could she?" Serah said, looking away from the painting. Shrugging, she ignored the large painting and left the hallway.

- Ending IV: Succumbing into Insanity -

* * *

**A/N: Was it too short? I hope you guys aren't mad at this one...**

**~ Crystal**


	15. ENDING V

Lightning wondered whether to choose to follow the doll's orders or not.

Annoyed, Lightning walked to the doll and gave it a glare. She swung her foot to it and kicked it to the wall, effectively decapitating the disturbing doll. When she saw blue liquid leaking out of the doll's neck, she nodded to herself and looked at the three doors.

"I should turn back and check on something else." Lightning said and turned her heels from the three doors. The footsteps that the doll made had been gone, strangely, and that the walls are growing to be empty from the disturbing, gruesome paintings. Lightning looked at the window and saw a shadowed figure behind it, banging on the glass.

Lightning ignored it. But she snapped her head to the window when something crashed to it. It was a large stone being thrown to the window by the figure, forming cobweb-like cracks on it. Another stuck the window, adding the cracks. A third stone finally broke it and went flying through the air, almost hitting her head.

Red liquid leaked from the outside and the shadowed figure was gone. Lightning left the broken shards of the window and into the previous large hall. All the paintings depicting Serah's death had moved there, arranged _neatly _on the walls. A stream of red liquid too real to be paint flowed out from one of the pictures, the one depicting Serah killed by a doll.

The liquid formed an ever-growing puddle beneath the frame. A weird stench resembling blood is in the air, seemingly originating from the puddle. Lightning winced; she was used to the smell of blood in the military but this made her feel rather nauseous.

She looked left and saw the painting of the mad artworks killing Serah. She looked down and the similar puddle of red liquid also leaked from the painting. When the stream stopped, it formed a red stain on the wall in a messy style;

_See this._

"See what?" Lightning questioned. Then she looked up into the painting and it shifted, the Serah in the painting already had her head cut off of the body. Red liquid suddenly sprayed out of the painting and onto the marble floor, forming some text on it.

_This is one of the many ways for Serah to die..._

Lightning ran to the only door in the large area and found that it was locked. She looked around and found a window, but it was barred with wooden planks. Lightning turned back to the broken window to find that it was gone as if it never existed in the first place. She turned back to the large area to find that more and more of the red liquid flowed onto the floor.

The liquid started to cover the entire floor in red. Lightning looked at the paintings and found out that they were more grotesque than before. She broke off into a sprint away from the flooding red liquid and back at the three doors. But before she could get her hands on the blue door, the floor cracked beneath her feet and she plummeted down into the dark abyss below.

* * *

Lightning let out a groan and shook her head. She was lying facedown on something cold. When she sat up, she recognized the place is the real gallery.

Lightning stood back up and dusted her shirt. Somehow she had gotten here. But how? It could be that one of the paintings teleported her here, or maybe it was the stupid dolls, or maybe... just maybe, she fell through the floor and landed here. That piece of memory was lost and she couldn't retrieve it herself.

Scoffing, Lightning looked around and found her rose lying on the ground. She picked it up and it was halfway wilted. She found a blue vase and restored her rose back to nine petals. Lightning decided to move around the area to find something useful when banging caught her attention. It was the shadowed figure banging on the nearby window.

She looked left and red liquid leaked from the cracks in the wall and the windows. Lightning almost jumped back in shock when the fruit in the 'Bitter Fruit' painting fell off from the frame and broke into pieces.

"I'm still not in the real world." Lightning mumbled to herself and left the area. Someone coughed, but Lightning never paid attention to it due to her already knowing that it was 'The Coughing Man'. She went down the stairs and into the dark reception desk. No one is there, obviously.

She tried the doors, but they were locked. Red liquid leaked from the windows and dripped onto the marble floor. Lightning moved on to the next part while keeping an eye on the 'Abyss of the Deep' painting. Rounding around a corner, Lightning saw the 'Still Life on Table' and found out that the 'Fabricated World' painting had ceased to exist. What remained is an empty wall.

She was trapped.

"Lightning!"

A voice caught her attention. She looked away and found Serah running quickly to her. "Where were you? I was looking everywhere!" Serah yelled, immediately hugging Lightning. Lightning was surprised at her sister's actions. If Serah was here, then the mad artworks must've lied to her about her death.

Lightning lightly pushed her away. "Serah? You're... still alive?" she questioned, confused. She knew it was a good choice to turn back and the doll might have wanted to trick her into killing herself behind the green door. "Alive and well, sis." Serah replied flatly.

Somehow, Lightning was curious at Serah's left hand. She hid it behind her back and it was like she was holding something. Deciding not to ask her sister, Lightning brushed it off as a normal manner. "Let's go home, sis!" Serah suddenly asked in a cheerful tone that was very unlike her. Serah wasn't a childish girl, for sure, but why did she suddenly act like this.

Her sister gave her a hand as if asking for her to come and go home together. Lightning looked down on Serah's outstretched hand. She missed her sister so much that she craved to keep her in the house and not letting her get out to the Guertena Art Gallery.

"Let's..." Lightning replied and took her sister's hand. Serah gave her a sweet smile and the two walked down the hallway, holding hands.

* * *

"Noel, quickly!" Serah ran down the hallway while watching the 'Death of the Individual' statues, fearing that it might come to life and attack them. Noel followed behind her while eyeing the window as someone banged on it.

The two ran down a set of stairs and saw a stream of red liquid leaking from the window. It was paint, but what that attracted Serah's attention were the red footprints on the marble floor. "Noel, look at this." She said, motioning to the footprints heading down the hallway. "It might be your sister. Come on!" Noel said and ran ahead of her.

Rounding off a corner, they found the set of footprints truly belonging to Lightning as Serah saw her sister walking away, her right hand grasping something but she couldn't see what it is. The 'Fabricated World' painting had been gone and now they were trapped here.

But that wasn't the concern right now.

"Lightning, come back! It's me! Come back here!" Serah yelled out to her sister, waving out her hands to catch her attention. But Lightning never listened and walked away slowly, apparently talking. But with who or what?

"Claire, don't! Come here! It's me, Serah! Claire, it's me! CLAIRE!" Serah tried to yell as loud as she could, but no matter what, her sister never listened and went around a corner. "CLAIRE! Come here! Don't listen to the fakes!" she yelled again, but Lightning did not turn back. Noel grabbed her wrist and pulled her away, though she struggled against it.

"Serah, don't! It's too late, we can't snap her outta it! Let's go!" Noel said, pulling her out of the hallway. When the hallway was about to go out of sight, Serah desperately screamed out for Lightning to listen.

"CLAIRE!"

* * *

When the two people are gone from sight, a mad giggle and a cry of pain sounded at the same time as red liquid too real to be paint sprayed on the walls and floor. Clattering and thumping followed soon after the cries are gone.

It was truly too late...

- Ending V: A Fake Reunion -


	16. ENDING VI

Lightning looked at the red door with the X mark on it. At first she had decided not to touch the door, but getting into that one would be better rather than follow the doll.

She glared at it and picked it up. Its piercing red eyes stared back into her aqua orbs, giving it a sense of creepiness.

Nodding to herself, Lightning walked to the red door and twisted the doorknob. The door was locked. She decided to turn back into the previous large area and heard banging on the window. It was the shadowed figure. Ignoring it, she resumed her walk. Not even a step to the front something hit the window.

It was a stone, forming cracks on the smooth glass surface. The shadowed figure was throwing stones at the window, now the second, and the second stone expanded the cracks. The third and largest stone flew to the window and shattered it, red liquid streaming down the window's remained frame. The shadowed figure was gone from sight.

Lightning left the scene, careful with the glass shards. After a few more minutes walking around, she found a door at the end of the way. She remembered that there were no doors blocking access to the large area and that she could directly access it without opening doors or the likes. She touched the doorknob and it was strangely cold.

"Why is it... cold?" Lightning asked no one in particular. Some text appeared on the door, saying 'Come on, go inside and find the key to the red door'. Lightning twisted the doorknob and she widened her eyes at the room's decor. Disturbing blue dolls of all shapes and sizes were there along with the paintings depicting Serah's death.

And they were all just... staring at her.

When Lightning entered the area fully, the door slammed shut on its own behind her. Shocked, she turned around and twisted the doorknob so many times but still, it won't budge. Some text appeared on the walls written in red liquid;

_Let's have a treasure hunt._

Lightning blinked. Then she turned around to the dolls. They were still in place, at least, and they were still staring at her. "That damn smile..." she muttered when she caught a doll wearing an ear-to-ear smile. She walked over to them and tore open a doll. Red liquid sprayed out, some getting to her face. Groaning in disgust, Lightning wiped the red liquid off her face.

She took a sniff on it. It wasn't blood, but it was just blood red paint. Lightning tried to keep her composure and walked over to a doll holding a paintbrush. Before she managed to get her hands on it, it squeaked and ran away in circles around the room. It must be the doll that held the key, its odd mannerisms showed that it was hiding something.

Lightning broke into a sprint to chase the doll. The doll tilted the paintbrush it was holding to the floor and drew a long blue line on it. Lightning stepped on some dolls and had gotten some paint splotches on her legs and shoes, but she ignored it and continued the chase. Some text appeared beneath a seemingly empty painting;

_You should better go to TRASH!_

Lightning stopped to look at the empty painting. Something suddenly burst out of the canvas, and it was a giant doll with wide open eyes and red paint leaking from its mouth. It couldn't get out of the frame, but it surely could drop the frame to the ground and chase her around.

The doll painting opened its mouth wide and the 'Paintbrush Doll' jumped in. The mouth closed soon after and the frame dropped to the ground, then the painting started to chase her around the room. Evading a blow from TRASH, Lightning reached a hand inside her pocket to find anything useful. She pulled out a survival knife, a birthday gift from Serah.

Lightning unfolded the knife and turned around to face TRASH. She slashed at the seams, tearing off an arm from it as black ink sprayed out to the walls and floor. She stabbed at its eyes and head repeatedly before tearing the head from the neck. It dropped dead to the ground and black ink oozed out. Lightning reached her hand into the tore remains and pulled out the 'Paintbrush Doll', covered in black.

She tore its stomach open and pulled out a red key and a silver key, still covered in the same black liquid. Lightning threw away the broken doll and walked to the door, unlocking it and locking it again after she went out of the large room.

When she looked around the corridor, the window was not broken and there are no glass shards on the floor. It was like that time had been reversed to before she entered the room and the puddle of red paint was not present, either.

Her answer came as a stone went flying through the window, breaking it into pieces. The thing nearly hit her, but she managed to duck before it collided with her head. Lightning ran away as another stone came flying her way. She saw another window and ducked as another stone hit and broke it. The shadowed figure was now throwing stones at every window to make sure that she doesn't make it to the door.

She evaded another set of stones hitting a window at the same time. Lightning ran as quickly as she could to the red door and saw that her position is in line with the final window by time she reached the red door. A large stone broke it and she ducked, missing it by several centimeters. Lightning unlocked the door quickly and went inside as another stone hit the door once she closed it.

She sighed in relief and pocketed the red key. In front of her was an endless corridor. She decided to follow the way through the dark tunnel and at the end she found out that she was back in the original gallery, though the area was pretty dim. Lightning ran to where she would find the painting 'Fabricated World', but once she reached the area, the painting was gone.

What remained there was an empty frame. Blue paint was leaking from behind it and dripped onto the floor. Lightning peeked through the other side of the corridor and the paintings depicting Serah dead are there. She dared not to look at those again but when she turned around, there was a bloodied doll hanging from the ceiling, resembling Serah in looks. It was hung upside down.

Growling in annoyance, Lightning took out her survival knife and slashed at the rope holding the doll. It fell down to the floor with a thump and she stepped on it, spraying red paint on the floor. She lifted her foot from it and took the doll. Lightning turned it around and saw a neatly folded paper taped to its back.

She tore the paper off the doll's back and unfolded it. It said 'Hanged Serah' in all caps and is written in red liquid. But it wasn't paint, it was blood. Actual blood. Lightning threw the paper away and looked to the mess she created on the floor. It actually spelled out 'Hanged Serah' as well, though it was extremely messy.

"_Lightning."_

A voice called out to her. Lightning turned around and saw Serah. She backed away from the girl and readied the survival knife beside her. "Why are you alone, Claire? Sisters shouldn't leave each other alone, right?" Serah said and walked forth to her.

"Should we go home now? I had been looking everywhere for you." Her sister said and froze in her place. Serah gave her a hand and a pleading expression was on her face. Lightning looked down at her sister's hand and hesitated for a while. Serah was dead. This couldn't be her.

"What are you waiting for?" Serah questioned again, still holding out a hand. Lightning gave her a glare and looked down at the knife. "You're not Serah."

With all her might, Lightning lifted the knife high and stabbed Serah at her throat. Black ink sprayed on the floor, hinting that this one was a fake. 'Serah's' eyes rolled back and she dropped to the ground with a thump. "You can't trick me," Lightning growled. "The real Serah... was dead." Her tone turned soft by time she said the last sentence.

She left the scene and walked upstairs. No one was around the Guertena Art Gallery. Lightning eventually grew desperate of her empty search and gave up. She stopped beneath 'The Hanged Man' painting to take a rest. She realized that she was trapped forever in the Fabricated World.

Trapped alone, and without Serah by her side.

Lightning looked down onto the survival knife. She lifted it to her eye level and looked at the black liquid staining it. She looked at her rose that was held in her other hand. It seems like an invisible force was telling her to just give up and die.

But it was truly the time to end this suffering...

Lightning sighed and looked at the knife, readying it in her right hand. She slashed at the red rose, cutting off the top from the stalk and with her remaining strength, Lightning plunged the knife into her throat as everything went black.

- Ending VI: Truths and Lies -

* * *

**A/N: Hey, I would like to thank roelaine for adding this story to your favorite list and following it! Thanks for all the likes and reviews!**

**Fear not, this isn't the end of my story... we'll move on and continue the other endings soon.**

**~ Crystal**


	17. Chapter 11: Endless Nightmares

**A/N: The story continues...**

* * *

Lightning looked down at the doll and frowned at it. If she chose to follow its orders, then she might get killed. Glaring at the annoying and disturbing thing, she walked over to it and delivered a rough kick to its face, sending it to the wall and decapitating it. Red liquid leaked from its neck.

She moved onto the blue door with the circle and twisted the doorknob. It won't budge. Lightning banged her fist in annoyance to its surface and turned around to the large area, deciding to find something to unlock the blue door. She almost jumped back in shock when a stone went flying through the window in front of her. A bizarre mix of red and black fluids leaked from the window's frame.

Lightning dared to peek outside the window. No one was there. Shrugging, she moved on to the area, but before a step could be taken, a small stone was thrown her way past the broken window. It scraped her forehead as well as tearing off a petal from her rose.

Hissing, Lightning pressed her palm to the bleeding wound and crouched to the floor. She looked around and spotted a window on her opposite side. Widening her eyes, she shielded her head when a rather large stone broke it and glass shards rained to her back. At least the stone didn't hit her back or it would tear off another petal.

Once the raining shards were over, Lightning broke into a sprint to the area. Someone was throwing stones at her but she couldn't see who it was, and the 'Figure', whoever it is, kept assaulting her on the road to her target. Evading a set of stones and more glass shards, she continued to run and run before finally reaching the location.

She saw a door blocking her way. It never existed before, then how can it possibly be there? _Argh, why should I care?! _Lightning thought irritably and opened the door when three small stones were thrown at her. She shut the door in time for the stones to hit it. When she averted her gaze from it, a group of those disturbing blue dolls were inside the large room, sadly.

Lightning looked left and found some dolls piled on top of each other messily. She groaned for having to deal with the red-eyed, messy-haired rag dolls again. She walked to the pile of dolls and started to throw them everywhere with hopes of finding something in the pile.

She pulled out a blue key from the pile. She never expected that the search would be that easy, but when she tried to open the door, it was locked out of nowhere. Lightning frowned and twisted the doorknob repeatedly. Nothing happened at all. Red liquid leaked from the hinges and dripped onto the floor. She backed away from the ever-growing puddle immediately.

She turned around to the group of dolls at the room's center and pulled out a survival knife from her pocket. She walked over to them and started to tear them apart, one by one. Lightning tore open a doll and found a pebble inside its stomach. She threw the useless thing away and tore open another. Blue liquid spilled out of it.

She looked back to the door and saw more and more liquid leaking from the hinges. A red puddle formed on the floor and it started to flow towards her. The liquid came into contact with a torn doll and the blue felt for its skin dissolved. Lightning widened her eyes at the sight. It was acid.

She tore the dolls apart faster and found nothing inside them. She looked up and saw some dolls hung from the ceiling, upside down of course. She walked to them and tore them open. None came out but fluids with random colors. Groaning, Lightning walked to the largest doll and tore its stomach open, and a silver key dropped to the floor.

Half the room's floor was now covered in red acidic liquid. Lightning walked briskly to a pile of tiles she saw at the room's corner and picked them up while biting on her rose's stem. Holding the tiles in one hand, she set them across the floor and leaped from one tile to another. She placed another tile and jumped on it, before repeating the process.

She placed the second-to-last tile on the floor and saw that the door was still some distance away. Lightning threw the tile, but sadly it broke into two pieces upon contact with the solid floor, also splattering the red acid around. She jumped as far as she could and landed smoothly on the tile, and carefully unlocked the door. The red acid flowed outside slowly.

Once she could get into a safe spot, Lightning broke into a sprint when the stones started to get thrown at her again. She ran as fast as she could to the door and slammed it shut behind her once she managed to get in and locked it again.

Heaving, Lightning continued her journey into the dark, pitch black tunnel.

* * *

"This is totally confusing..."

Vanille shook her head when Fang complained the umpteenth time today. The hallways they were in were looping and endless as if it was a maze. They were back to where they began right now, right at the crossroads after escaping the doll room. She looked to the wall and then at her knife. Why not leave a message? She carved some text on the wall and leaving a sign on it, saying;

_Stuck here with my friend Fang._

_If anyone read this, please help us.  
Please help us to get out of this looping maze._

_Vanille_

"Well, I guess we should look for some more ways to get out..." Fang mumbled, putting her hands on her hips and leaning the staff against the wall. From the corner of her eyes, Vanille saw something on a table at the distance. Squinting her eyes, she saw a door behind it as well. "Hey Fang, why not check out that door over there?" she said and motioned to the door.

Fang looked at the direction she was facing. "Yep. Might as well go there." She replied.

The two walked to the table and saw a vase on it. A lone burgundy rose with sixteen petals was sitting inside the table. Some text was on the wall behind the table, written in blue paint, saying 'TAKE ME'. Fang gave the rose a confused look and tried to push the small table away. It was too heavy to move around.

"I guess we should _really _take this thing..." she muttered and picked the beautiful flower up. Vanille pushed the table away with ease and opened the door behind it.

Inside was a very long hallway filled with paintings of women in differently-styled outfits and jewelry with alternating colors. "Uh... you know what this means?" Vanille questioned nervously. Fang shrugged in reply, "Bad luck, maybe?"

When they started to walk down the hallway, something crashed and a growl sounded. Gasping, they turned around to see that a painting of a woman in a blue dress with long brown hair had fallen from the wall and was crawling her way to them. The painting reached out her hands as if demanding something from the two.

"Run!" Fang yelled and shoved Vanille ahead of her. Moving on instinct, Vanille broke into a sprint down the hallway when another painting of a woman with green dress fell from the wall and started to chase them. More and more of the women paintings came to life, shrieking and growling behind them.

They passed by a headless statue with yellow dress. The statue stirred and it began to chase them as well, with the narrow pathway worsening the condition. "Faster!" Vanille yelled to her friend who was trying to catch her breath. Fang managed to stab a Lady in Yellow with her staff and splattered yellow paint on the walls.

One of the Ladies managed to tear off a petal from the burgundy rose and Vanille let out a cry when a gash formed on her left forearm and blood dripped to the floor. She looked back and saw Fang wheezing while clutching her side, seemingly in pain. "Hey! Take this!" she yelled and threw the rose to her. Vanille caught it and secured it inside her jacket pocket.

Vanille looked left and saw a group of dolls lined neatly on a shelf. They stirred and pulled out knives from their backs, giggling madly and began to chase them behind the headless statue. The lights flickered and the hallway darkened, worsening their vision. "Are you freaking kidding me?!" Fang yelled in annoyance and ran faster.

They reached a dead end and the artworks cornered them. "We're trapped!" Vanille said, readying her knife to kill the artworks anytime. She looked left and saw a door, but it was blocked by a statue. Thankfully it did not come to life. Fang tried to push the statue away but it didn't budge an inch. Vanille looked with terror in her face at the group of artworks that are closing in on them.

The Ladies reached out their hands and demanded the rose, ready to kill anyone anytime.

The statue moved closer to them and reached out its marble hands, ready to crush them.

The dolls giggled maniacally and readied their knives, ready to plunge the weapon into their flesh.

A doll leaped Fang's way and Vanille managed to stab it with her knife before it did any damage to her friend. Fang plunged the staff into another, tearing its limbs off its body. They managed to kill the dolls, but the Ladies and the statue were the major problem.

Before a Lady in Blue managed to steal the rose, the floor cracked. The two froze in place and looked down. "Uh... I think something really bad is going to happen..." Vanille muttered when cobweb cracks spread across the floor. The Ladies stopped advancing as well, a seemingly dumbfounded look on their faces.

"Vanille! Step on the floor!" Fang yelled and started jumping up and down to expand the cracks on the floor. "Are you crazy?! We're gonna fall!" Vanille yelled back but followed Fang's orders otherwise. The artworks continued advancing again and inched closer and closer to them.

The floor broke completely under their feet and sent them to the dark abyss below.

* * *

"Mary! Where are you?"

Yelling countless times was simply useless when no one responded. Not even a voice sounded from the hallways neither did from the rooms. Ayla wandered aimlessly around the area and found nothing but emptiness in the place. She stopped in front of the Aspiration to catch her breath for a moment before yelling out again, "MAAARYY!"

No response.

Groaning, she took out her rose and looked at it. Seven petals still clung since they had gotten chased by some kind of lunatic statues a few minutes ago. Ayla looked right and saw a brown clay vase sitting on a table beside a door. She approached it and dipped the flower into the vase, and the petals were restored to their previously fresh state. "Mary, if you're not there and you're hurt, then—"

"Ayla."

Ayla snapped her head towards the speaker. No doubt it's actually Mary, but strangely, she was holding the palette knife they found moments ago. "What are you doing? Why are you alone?" Mary said as a sickeningly sweet smile spread to her face. "We shouldn't leave each other alone. Sisters... wouldn't."

Raising a suspicious eyebrow, Ayla backed off from the knife-wielding girl until her back hit the wall. "Do you care to explain what that means?" she asked in a gentle tone, but Mary just ignored it and continued to approach her slowly like a zombie threatening to devour its victim. "You would know... soon." Mary replied and raised the knife, attempting to stab her.

"Mary!"

A shout made them turn their heads at the source. Somebody called out, but there is no one in sight. The answer came when a figure ran upstairs from the lower levels. _Wait... that staircase never existed. So how in the world would it appear here? _Ayla thought, confused. The figure was actually someone she would like to see; Hope.

"Wait... what?!" Mary yelled in rage and turned her attention to him. "No one has survived _that _room! My friends will do anything to stop you!" With a battle-cry, the girl launched herself to Hope, knife raised, ready to stab him anytime. He merely stepped sideways to dodge the blow and he managed to slap the knife out of her hands.

Mary tried to retrieve her only weapon again, but he grabbed her wrist before she had the chance to get it back again. Ayla gave the two a confused look and slight fear at the girl's fierce behavior. Mary was a sweet girl some moments ago, but that was gone when she turned rather cold and aggressive. "Let go of me!" Mary yelled and struggled to get her hand free.

"Why did you attack her? She had done nothing wrong!" Hope yelled and made the conditions worse. "You interfered," Mary spat in reply. "We were supposed to stay together! Me and her!"

"I don't care." He said with an edge in his tone. "You were too selfish for your own good. You better not touch her. Give her some respect and leave. Her. Alone." Mary reached out her other hand to the fallen knife, but she was unable to retrieve it. Finally she managed to wrench her wrist out of his grasp and she rushed to the knife immediately and picked it up. "You don't understand my condition." She said.

"Why should I?" Hope retorted. "I. Want. To. Go. Out." Mary said while stressing each word, aiming the knife at him. _Out? Out where? _Ayla thought in confusion. "I never cared for that," this time it was Hope. "And like I said, LEAVE HER ALONE!" he grabbed the girl by her shoulders and shoved her roughly to the opposite wall, therefore hitting her head to the wall and knocking her out.

"Mary!" Ayla exclaimed, quickly rushing to the girl's side. She tried waking her up but she was truly unconscious. "Step back, Ayla." Hope said behind her with a much gentler tone. "She's no ordinary girl."

"Mary just wanted a friend," she retorted, turning back to face him. "She's quite attached to me. You can't just... appear and hurt her out of nowhere!" she looked up to his eyes and he sighed, "Calm down," he said. "Mary isn't human. She's... just a painting of Guertena's."

"What?!" Ayla yelled. _Mary is a painting?! _She mentally yelled at herself. "Yes. Take a look." Hope replied after pulling out a torn paper from his pocket and handing it to her. She accepted it and unfolded the thing, and started scanning the ripped off page. _Unbelievable, _her inner mind said when she reached the final part of the page.

"And take a look at this as well." He handed another piece of paper and she looked at the picture on it. It was the picture that looked exactly like Mary, except it was a picture of her in an octagonal golden frame surrounded by yellow roses and thorny vines.

Ayla scanned the picture over and over again. Mary wanted to leave the Fabricated World and stay in the true world. She would have to ditch someone here, and that would be... Hope. She wanted to have her all for herself.

_What a truly selfish painting..._

That was the only thought crossing her mind when she fell to her knees in defeat. Hope was right to defend her. If he's not here a few moments ago, she would have been killed off. She crushed the paper in her fist and lowered her arm to her side.

"It's okay," Hope said behind her and set a hand on her shoulder. "I guess you were just mad or something." Ayla frowned and looked over her shoulder at him. "No, it's obviously _not _okay." She corrected, looking back at the rustled paper she still held. "I'm wrong. Mary had actually _lied _to me. If you weren't there in time, I would've been dead."

He chuckled, pulling her into a hug. "I guess I'm just worried for you, after all." Ayla just smiled at his remark. She kept her gaze at the unconscious Mary and then looked back to the paper and unfolded it. She stared into the picture Mary's eyes. It was like staring down and down below into a dark abyss.

"I guess things are starting to get different, no?" Hope questioned with a smile. "I guess so." She replied. "We should get going before Mary got up and try to kill us again." He released her and helped her back to her feet, and with light spirits, the two set off into the depths of the gallery, down the previously blocked stairwell.

_Ah, things were quite different after all._

* * *

"Mommy, wake up!"

Mary groaned and shook her head at the slightly creepy voice. She opened her eyes and saw a doll standing on her, her red eyes staring into her blue ones. "Eh... Isa? Where am I?" she questioned to the doll that she named Isabelle. "It's like you knocked your head to the wall, Mommy." Isa replied and got off of her.

"The wall?" Mary wondered. And then everything came back to her, including how rough Hope shoved her to the wall she was leaning against. "Him," she growled, picking up her knife beside her. "Where did they go?"

"I don't know, dear." The Lady in Red in front of her replied. "It's like they humans were harming us."

Mary looked right and saw a group of dolls that belonged to her as her playmates. She looked into one wearing a pink dress, and the doll stared back at her. "What if... we play again?" she said with a smile. The dolls nodded abruptly, some clapping their stuffed hands. "Yeah! Isa wants to play with Mommy again!" Isa said cheerfully.

"I suppose you can get some more friends to play. I don't want you to be hurt now, Mary." Lady in Red said, clasping her hands together while using her elbows for support. "I can't wait to play again," she grinned. "It was like a very... satisfying thing to play. Oh, the flowers they brought for me are very beautiful..."

A statue in yellow dress appeared from the end of the hallway and said something like 'it's about time', since they don't have heads to talk. "Why not go back to home? I bet we can play a lot there." Mary said to the dolls. The dolls cheered and the Lady in Red smiled at her. "Go play, but don't hurt yourself. And I had something to say." The Lady motioned for her to kneel beside her and whispered something.

Mary merely grinned at the idea. She picked up Isa from the floor and started to walk away when the Lady's voice caught her, "Don't forget to keep them fresh or else my fellow Ladies won't like them!" She turned around to face the woman and gave a sly grin,

"Sure do."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the long update *bows* I spent DAYS to type this chapter. By the way, if you don't get it, Vanille and Fang shared the same rose, so don't be confused for the amount of petals on it. Basically, if the rose wilts, the two will die together.**

**My holiday is quickly ending and I will type rarely past August 19****th****. So don't be mad if I don't really update soon enough.**

**Until next time,**

**~ Crystal**


	18. ENDING VII

**A/N: If you guys were looking for an ending where Mary is involved, this is your lucky day. The first segment replays where Hope is stuck in the doll room puzzle.**

**Enjoy the seventh ending.**

* * *

_Rip. Thump._

_Rip. Thump._

_Rip. Thump._

After around the sixth doll he would tear open to get out, Hope was starting to get dizzy from the church bells tolling in his head. The seemingly empty painting had revealed a large, creepy painting doll that was targeting him in the room.

_Rip._

Another doll tore open and a pebble rolled out. He tore open another and red paint sprayed out, staining his jacket. He looked up at the bigger dolls on the higher shelves and tried to reach them, but he can't. The doll painting peeked out its head, messy black rag hair showing. It opened wide its bloodshot eyes.

Hope grew frantic the moment he realized that there is no key in every doll. He looked back to the painting and it giggled. The giant doll opened its stitched mouth slightly and a stream of crimson liquid flowed out. Then it spat out a key coated in the same fluid.

Widening his eyes, Hope lunged forwards to grab the key. He succeeded, and looked back at the giant doll. It smiled back at him. He tried to make a run for the door, but he never managed to do so when a hand caught his ankle. The doll slowly dragged him into the frame. He struggled against its grip but he managed to get the hand off his ankle and he sprawled out in front of the frame. He looked back at the doll, and it stared back into his eyes.

Then it smiled widely.

Before he knew what was happening, the giggles of the doll got madder before everything went red, then black. The only image in his mind is the giant doll's face laughing at him and a short, shadowed figure was standing beside it, laughing as well.

* * *

"Mary! There you are!"

A voice greeted Mary's ears. She seethed and brandished her palette knife and hid it well behind her back. Ayla rushed quickly towards her, worry on her expression. "What do you think you're doing? You could have been killed!" the older woman said, smiling a bit.

Mary gave her an empty stare. "Mary, what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Ayla questioned, arching an eyebrow a bit. Still, she gave her a blank face. Then her hand suddenly shot out and stabbed Ayla on her thigh. Crimson spurted out of the wound and a petal visibly fell off the rose.

Letting out a pained cry, Ayla wobbled a bit and collapsed on her rear. "What had you done?" Mary asked in a monotonous voice, though she was mentally chuckling evilly to herself. "Why are you alone?" she asked again when the woman backed off and crawled to the one of the corners of the room. "We shouldn't have left each other... alone."

"Mary, stop." Ayla pleaded with tears in the corner of her eyes from the wound. "Why are you doing this? What's wrong? If there's something wrong, you know that—"

"Nonsense," Mary replied, walking slowly towards her. "I don't have to speak with you _anymore_." When Ayla was about to open her mouth she was cut off when Mary plunged the palette knife into her forehead. She gurgled when she was stabbed continuously in the throat and red liquid trickled slowly from the corner of her lips.

Making sure that her victim was dead, Mary stabbed Ayla one last time at the heart before withdrawing the palette knife again. It was covered in a crimson liquid with a sharp stench which was unfamiliar to her. She waved out her knife in front of her and splattered the liquid on the floor in front of the corpse.

Seething out heavy breaths, Mary pocketed the palette knife and smiled to herself. She had just killed someone that was very dear to another, and she was sure that he couldn't hear the voices happening in the murder scene. TRASH was doing a very good job.

Mary giggled to herself and turned around to see a group of artworks approaching her from the distance. There are some of the knife-wielder dolls, two statues and other regular dolls. She noticed that the Lady in Red is missing and that she wanted to tell how she managed to kill her 'friend'. "Mommy!" A doll in a white dress ran past the crowd and jumped into her arms.

"Hey Isa," she giggled. "How's your day?"

"It's super fun!" Isa replied and got down. "We drew pictures, we get some flowers for the Ladies and then we had a paintball war. Look, we're all a mess."

Mary looked to the other dolls and saw that they had paint splotches on their dresses, face and body in various colors. She giggled, "I'll help you clean up later." The dolls gave nods of agreement and sat down. She sat down as well except for the statues, due to them being too stiff and unable to sit. The red statue shrugged a bit and then motioned at something behind her.

Mary remembered what she had just done. She looked to the corpse behind her and grinned, before telling the dolls and the statues what she done moments ago.

* * *

"Awesome!" A doll said once the story was finished. "That way they wouldn't harm us again!"

"But that means we can't play with anyone but Mommy again!" another doll argued. "Well at least we still had her!" the former doll yelled back. Mary gave a smile at her arguing playmates and thought that their behavior is cute. _They're actually cute otherwise, _she thought to herself, shaking her head a bit.

"Guys, stop it. I don't want anything to happen to you! It's okay if we don't have any humans again to play together, but we can invite more to join in! So don't be sad, okay?"

"Sorry!" the dolls said, giggling a bit. "We don't mean it."

"That's my girls," Mary smiled proudly. "Now, why don't you keep an eye on her while I go out for a while? I have something important to do." Isa nodded from her spot, "Right away, Mommy!" she scrambled down the table she sat on previously and sat near the corner.

Mary grinned. Her happy ending was advancing towards her. She wondered how the real world would look like. The people, the voices, the light—everything. The real world sounded fun, unlike the Fabricated World where her Daddy's artworks are resting in. She rounded the corner and to the statue that was blocking the stairs heading down. "Can you please move a bit?"

The statue obeyed her and walked out of the way. Mary walked down the stairs and saw her fellow painting Fisherman, who was reeling his fishing rod. It's like he had caught something on his hook. Ignoring the lone painting, she walked to the room where TRASH resided. She peeked through the window and saw Hope talking to a doll.

Nodding, she proceeded to the shadow of the True Guertena Exhibit. The place looked like the real gallery, but it was much darker. She walked pass the Embodiment of Spirit and went up the stairs, to the upper levels of the dark gallery. She stumbled upon the 'Fabricated World' painting soon after.

Mary saw the golden frame disappear. When she was about to take the chance to jump in, somebody called out to her. "Mary, what are you trying to do?" it was the Lady in Red, dragging her frame behind her as she crawled on the ground. She sounded as angry as she looked.

Uh-oh.

"Are you trying to leave us? Your _family? _Your own _sister?_" the woman clad in red asked again, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong if I leave? I can do whatever I wanted to do." Mary replied. The Lady shook her head in a rejecting manner, "You cannot leave. Your heart is fabricated." She reasoned, pulling out a red rose from inside her frame, and began plucking its petals off.

"If you leave, however, you cannot see anyone. You cannot hear anyone. And they would not either, and they _will _not." She said once the petals are all gone. "Remember the rules of the art gallery, Mary. You may not leave, you cannot leave, and you _will not_ leave."

Mary shot a glare at her older sister. "I _will _leave. And I know that since the beginning." She spat and returned to the painting, to try climb in once again. "You _will not _leave. And I also know that from the very beginning." The Lady in Red retorted.

To Mary's horror, the frame formed again around the painting and blocked the access out. She ended scraping her arm on it and black ink flowed out of the gash. A pair of statues appeared behind her and grabbed her upper arms. "Take her back and make sure that she cannot escape." the Lady commanded and the statues started dragging her into the shadows.

Mary let out a scream as the Lady was gone from sight and she was dragged around a corner.

* * *

The pair of statues threw her to the floor in front of the artworks, back in the previous room that she left. "She's a traitor!" the Lady in Blue accused, pointing a dried rose stalk at her. "She wanted to leave this world and abandon us!"

"How cruel!" a doll protested, waving out its knife. "I can't trust Mommy anymore! I don't like Mommy anymore!" the Lady in Green nodded beside the little doll. "I heard from Red that she wants to escape the Fabricated World and into the human realm! She's a real unforgivable traitor!"

Mary continued to listen to the artworks' accusations. _Am I really a traitor? I just wanted to have a good and happy life! I just wanted it, no more, no less!_

"I know you're happy here, Mommy." Isa said as if reading her thoughts. The doll nodded sadly to herself and stood up, approaching. "Isa hated to tell Mommy about this, but big sis wanted to let you stay here, and we'll always be together, forever."

Everyone quieted down when the Lady in Red appeared with the previous two statues. "I know what I must do to you now, Mary." She said, grinning evilly. "I wanted you to stay here so you would be safe, dear. I hated to do this to you, but to keep you safe..." she turned around to the statues behind her.

"... Silence her."

All artworks gasped. "Aren't you listening to me? Silence her!" the Lady yelled and slammed her fist to the floor. "Silence her to make sure that she didn't get out again, forever!"

Mary's eyes widened with fear as the artworks were now turning against her. They approached her slowly and cornered her beside Ayla's corpse. She tried to say anything, but no words formed in her mouth. It was like her mind was simply a blank space. "Good night, my dear Mary." The Lady in Red's voice sounded behind the crowd. Mary let out a final scream at the words,

"... Daddy!"

* * *

"... Daddy!"

Hope shot his eyes open at the familiar scream. It was Mary's voice, but it was like she was the one that was calling out for help. He looked to the object he was holding and realized that it was one of the creepy dolls. He threw it across the room and onto the wall. "Why am I talking to a doll?" he wondered, trying out the key in his pocket.

The door opened and he looked at the staircase heading to the upper levels. A stench was disturbing him, and it came from upstairs. "I don't care the details! Please let her be safe!" he yelled and ran up the stairs.

When he got to the upper level, Hope was horrified at the sight before him. The walls were stained with an overlapping mixture of crimson and black liquid as well as the floors. Ayla's body was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room, and it looked like she was terribly stabbed in the throat several times before she died when something stabbed her both in the heart and the forehead.

He looked to the floor, and saw a more terrible sight. A body was smashed on the floor to almost unrecognizable pieces, but something was lying in front of the body. It was a palette knife, and when he looked at the pulverized corpse's head, he saw a pair of familiar wide eyes staring back at his.

"... Mary?"

- Ending VII: A Painting's Demise -


	19. ENDING VIII

**A/N: This is another ending where Mary is involved as well.**

* * *

This was around the fifth time the church bell tolled across the doll room.

Panicked as the large doll painting came into view, Hope tore more dolls frantically in search for the key. Giggles erupted from the painting and he grew more frantic as time passed and a toll echoed. Ripping another doll's head off its body, blue paint spilled out of the remains.

Tearing open another, he looked back to the giant doll and saw a clawed hand sticking out of it. The hand gripped onto the golden frame and another hand appeared, clutching the frame tightly. Something black peeked out from inside the painting followed by a large blue face. He knew it was the doll.

But he also knew that his frantic state wasn't what he felt for himself. He was worried for Ayla. He feared that Mary might do anything harmful to her. As he tore open yet another doll, he looked back at the painting and saw that the doll's head had been fully popped out and now it was staring back intently at him. It giggled a bit.

Panicked, Hope tore open more dolls faster, but none of them had the key. The giant doll was now still giggling madly from its frame and reaching its clawed hands out. But then one of the hands went back inside the frame and the doll pulled out something from inside and threw the item to the floor in front of its frame.

It was the key necessary to open the door.

Hope dropped the doll he was holding and immediately tried to grab the key, but the doll's hand clung onto his ankle and grabbed it in a death grip. The doll giggled and began pulling him into the frame. He had tried his best to get the hand off his ankle, but the grip on it was too strong. The doll giggled and tightened its grip on his ankle, threatening to crush it.

He struggled harder and tried to pull away with all his might. He was now halfway in the frame and if he didn't make it, the doll would pull him into the canvas and make him into a painting. He yanked and yanked his feet, but it was useless when the doll's grip tightened more and he heard a slight crack and pain shot up his leg. "Let go of me, will you?!" he yelled in frustration and pulled harder.

The doll giggled as a stream of red paint flowed out of its mouth. It tightened its grip and eventually crushed his ankle. He let out a cry of pain when he felt the bone snapping under the doll's strength, but he thanked it when it loosened its grip on his now-crushed ankle.

Then his worst fear happened.

The doll took hold of his ankle again and forcefully pulled him into the frame, leaving him holding it from inside. He tried his fullest yet to get his ankle out, but the doll's grip was too strong. He looked back to it and saw the doll giggling madly and it smiled—a very wide one for sure.

Hope managed to get and reach his arm out to grip at the carpeted floor, but the doll was too strong and it fully pulled him inside its frame. Before everything went dark, he managed to yell out for anyone to hear him;

"AYLA!"

* * *

"AYLA!"

Mary froze. "Who's that?!" She called out, but there is no response from the hallways or the staircase leading to the lower grounds. "It's like... _his _voice." Ayla said, peeking through a corner. There is no one in sight or any artworks loitering around.

"It might be, but I doubt the fact that it's actually Hope." Mary said and then started to circle the area. Ayla hesitated for a while. _I'm not sure whether to go to or leave him alone there... _she thought, looking down the staircase. _But if I leave him alone here... it might not be a good idea to do it. Mary might lie and she just wanted to have my attention on her. Right... I'll just go to him._

"Mary," Ayla decided to call out to the girl. "Why not go downstairs and check up on him? He might be caught in a trap we never noticed."

The girl hesitated for a while, before nodding again. They went down the stairs and went to try each of the doors. Ayla tried the one near a small table and another beside a door with a green gem on it, but both doors were locked. Mary tried the one with the green gem but it was locked as well, but the door beside it wasn't. "Hey, this doorknob is cold. I wonder what goes inside?" she said, tilting her head in a cute manner.

Ayla touched the knob, and just like Mary said, the doorknob was cold. She twisted it open, and she could have sworn that she saw a wicked grin on Mary's face. But she brushed it off as something regular anyway and opened the door. Inside was a room full of Chocobo-shaped dolls with various colors, ranging to the common yellow until the exquisite gold.

But strangely, they all had piercing, beady red eyes. Some of them had been torn apart and the room was a total mess, stuffing and paint splotches of various colors are everywhere in the room. On the room's end was two similar-looking painting, depicting nothing in particular.

"I think Hope called out from this room, but where is he?" Ayla asked Mary, who was standing quietly beside her. But she thought for a while that she saw a hint of faint satisfaction written across her expression. "What if he might not be here?" the girl replied casually, approaching a white Chocobo doll and starting to wave it around and play with it.

Arching an eyebrow, Ayla approached the painting on the left side of the wall, near a blue doll that was torn apart. Nothing is inside the frame but emptiness. Shrugging, she approached the one on the right. There was nothing as well. She turned her back from it and was about to bring Mary with her to leave the room when she heard something.

She looked back to the painting on the right and saw that red liquid is flowing from behind the golden frame. The liquid flowed to the floor until a puddle was formed. Ayla approached the painting and inspected the liquid. There was nothing wrong with it, and she was relieved that it wasn't blood.

When she turned around, she gasped in horror when all the Chocobo dolls in the room had turned into blue-skinned, rag-haired creepy dolls with piercing red eyes and any kinds of dresses but the good ones. They all looked ragged and torn. What shocked her more is that Mary was casually playing with the dolls, even giggling to herself.

"Please don't tell me that something's wrong..." Ayla muttered to herself and dared to turn around. The painting on the right had confirmed her worst horror.

"No," she said in disbelief. She approached it and scanned every detail of the picture depicted in the golden frame. "No! It can't be! NO!" she banged her fist to the smooth canvas inside and regretted looking at it in the first place. She could hear giggling behind her.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Mary said, hugging a doll wearing a white dress. That alone looked ragged. "TRASH had done the best job ever. She kindly drew me this picture, and I'd accept it... gladly." She finished with an evil tone and then giggled to herself. "If you'd like to see... the rules of the gallery, you might want to know. It's a very important thing to notice." The girl said and then began circling the room.

"It's a very good thing to learn. Big sis taught me to stay, and I did." Ayla grew confused, but heartbroken at the same time. Still keeping her fist on the canvas, she turned her head around to face Mary. "Who is your big sister?" she tried to ask, hoping that the girl will answer. "Ah... you might be shocked to hear who my big sis is..." Mary replied and chuckled.

"... The Lady in Red."

Ayla's eyes widened upon listening to the words. "You lied..." she muttered, tears threatening to fall and falling to her knees. "You lied... you're an artwork of Guertena's..." Mary giggled her reply and patted the doll she held on the head, before smirking grimly. "So true, Ayla." She said casually and put the doll on the floor, before nearing her and putting a hand on her shoulder. "But you're not alone and you never will be."

"Why are you doing this?" Ayla questioned in a low tone. "What do you want from us?! Why did you try to hurt us here?! I demand answers. NOW!"

Mary merely grinned at the outburst. "I want to go out." She replied in a near-whisper voice. "Out to where?" Ayla asked, clearly confused. "You know? Out there. There is light, laughter, happiness, fun and everything else but shadows and darkness. That is the world where I wanted to be."

The real world. She was referring to the real world. _We're going to be replacements here... me and him. _Ayla thought sadly. She stopped her train of thoughts when Mary suddenly pulled off the Manadrive disk off her right forearm. "This one should go away. Useless thing," the girl said and smashed the device by stepping on it and kicking the broken remains away.

"Let's see... what should I do to you? I guess I'll just have to check my schedules today. Let's take a look over here..." Mary muttered and started pacing around the room. "I know," she said. _Whatever it is... it must be a bad thing. But if that means dying alongside Hope... well then, I'd accept it gladly. _Ayla thought and looked at the painting girl, waiting for her to say a logical thing.

"We can play a lot of stuff together. We can draw things, read some stories... oh, and then we can play the usual paintball-throwing session. But most importantly, I'll introduce you to my friends." Mary said as a group of artworks entered the doll room. A Lady in Blue was cackling to herself when she caught sight of the violet rose. "Nu-uh, you can't have it yet." Mary said. The Lady just sighed and nodded.

"Guys, this is our new friend. She could stay and play lots and lots of stuff with us. We could stay together as long as eternities, and now, begin the welcoming party!" Mary cheered as the artworks nodded agreeably and advanced towards Ayla, cornering her.

A hand tapped at her shoulder from behind and she turned around to see that the 'empty' painting on the left side was now a picture of a giant doll with large claws on the hands. The hand shot to her neck and grabbed her by her collar, suspending her above the ground and strangling the life out of her. "Let... g-go..." she managed to say betweens gasping and gurgling.

Mary just giggled at her suffering, and spread out her arms, motioning to her fellow artworks behind her, and then started grinning like a lunatic,

"Welcome to the world of Guertena."

Ayla cannot say anything as the giant doll's hand tightened around her neck, almost snapping it, and she screamed out for help as the doll dragged her into the frame and imprisoning her in there.

_I'll never forgive you..._

- Ending VIII: Welcome to the World of Guertena -

* * *

**A/N: If you're curious what the painting on the right is depicting, I'll explain it to you the next chapter. Just ask me anything you don't know about, and don't forget to read and review!**

**~ Crystal**


	20. Chapter 12: Worry

**A/N: Uh... at last my recovery is done. I had my asthma back so I had to stop typing for a while, but now I'm completely cured (actually, this happened a week ago). So, I decided to send this chapter for you...**

* * *

Lightning ended up somewhere weird.

The place was made entirely of crayon and the air smelled quite like oil pastels. Some objects felt like crayon and some felt like it was drawn with chalk. "What is this place?" Lightning wondered, looking around to the scenery. There was a park at the distance filled with flowers, and several birds in the sky.

Obviously they're all made of crayon.

It was like a small child's drawings. Deciding to check on her rose, she took it out of her pocket and checked on the petals. Some had fallen and is reduced to five due to her coming into contact with the red-acid thing in the large hall. She turned back to look at the door, but it was gone as if never existing in the first place.

Lightning looked at the horizon and saw a column of smoke rising. Her worry instantly rose at the sight, and she didn't dare to think that something had happened to her little sister. She took out her knife and resumed her journey to find the source of the smoke.

At least she'll dub this place as 'Sketchbook'.

* * *

"Do you think we lost her?" Hope questioned while walking to the door. Ayla stopped dead in her tracks, and remembered that they were now leaving someone who was a part of the group. "Who... Mary?" she asked, hoping for a good answer. "Of course." He replied, stopping to look back at her.

"I felt like guilty for leaving her all alone there." She said, looking back to the previous hallway they came from. "She's just a lonely little girl who wants a friend to play together with."

"And you know she's also harmful at the same time." He tried to reason. "And she's going to kill you the last time I confronted her." Ayla just nodded agreeably. "I know. But she's just lonely. Mary wants a friend to stay with her. Someone had to replace her so that she could be free. Free as a human, not as a painting in a canvas."

"Don't tell me you wanted to stay here so you can replace her." Hope said and approached her with concern evident in his eyes. She just smiled at it, "Even if I stay here and Mary leave, I'll never go away. Besides, you may not remember me ever again if we get out of this world."

"I can't just... forget you." He said, sighing. Ayla chuckled and looked away, "You worry too much..."

He chuckled as well, "You're the one that made me felt that. But I think..." she gasped when he suddenly lifted her chin up and looked straight at her. "... You have to promise me not to do any kind of weird things that will kill you."

She just stared blankly back. Catching herself staring, she nodded lightly and muttered an "I'll try not to..." and he smiled back at her. "Good." He said and leaned in a bit before giving her a gentle kiss. She shot her eyes open at the gesture and gagged a bit. After a while he pulled away and got his hands off her, and said a 'Sorry' before promptly leaving her after that.

Giving an unbelieving stare, Ayla almost fell to her knees and trembled a bit. She watched the shadows of the hallway before her with a mind like a blank page inside a book. "Why..." she wondered to herself, and suddenly felt a bit shy.

"Argh, I'm so indecisive!" she berated herself and tapped the floor with the crowbar she was holding, nearly slamming her head to the wall in annoyance. "Please tell me that I'm not... not..." she said, unable to finish the sentence due to her sudden weird... feelings. A light blush crept up to her cheeks, and she tried to ignore it. "I-I should follow him..."

Ignoring her own feelings inside her heart, she left the area and disappeared in the shadows.

* * *

"Did something bother you?"

Serah turned around to see Noel standing behind her. "Yeah..." she replied lowly and tried to keep the disturbing thoughts inside her head out. "I think what's disturbing me is the things inside the Black House... those corpses..."

"I guess it's a bit traumatic," he shrugged, looking around. "Those things are very disturbing. I guess it's also a reason that I didn't want to go inside that basement lab." She nodded agreeably and stared at the horizon. It appeared that the sun was setting in the Sketchbook, a weird thing for sure. "It's completely gross." She said with a nod.

"Yeah, it's like a madman's lab; A madman who liked cutting up people for fun." Noel said, chuckling a bit. Serah giggled as well at his remark, "Don't talk about things like that. I don't like it."

"Oh, sorry." He replied. "That thing keeps getting stuck in my mind and it never gets out." Both of them burst out laughing. But the laughter stopped as something clicked inside Serah's head. "I miss Claire..." she mumbled, her gaze turning sad. "Right... we still haven't found her yet." Noel agreed, his tone soft.

"She might get killed. She had done so much careless things, you know. I'm very worried for her." She said with a slight nod. "Hey, don't let your spirits down. I know we'll find her anytime soon." Noel said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I guess we better continue searching for her by now. I wanted to see her with my own eyes as soon as possible."

"Now that's better," he said. "Shall we go now?"

"Yeah." Serah replied and took his hand, and walked down the brick path, yearning to see Lightning once again.

_Hey sis, you know what? We'll always try to find you. So, well... I don't want you to do anything stupid. I promise to find you again, and we'll go home together. And then we'll always stay together, forever._

_I promise you that, sis._

* * *

At the end of the hallway, Ayla saw Hope standing in front of a door. "What's wrong?" she dared to ask, and he didn't reply. "It might lead to somewhere..." he said after a few seconds of eerie silence, and turned around to see her. "Are you ready to step in? There might be no way to return."

"You sound weird," she said. "Is anything wrong at all?"

"Sorry," he said, looking back to the door. "I guess my mental condition is a bit down after all." Ayla frowned unhappily at that, "Is it Mary again?" "Perhaps." "She's not going to follow us again. I bet you that. Besides, you knocked her out, and maybe she's dead already from it."

"I guess so." Hope replied without looking back at her. _Weird, _Ayla thought. _He's acting like that after... well, that. But something sounded kinda weird. I wonder what got into his head. I need to find out what it is. _"Nothing is right here." she tried to reason and to get information on what's bothering him. "Is this also about the Fabricated World?"

No reply.

He just looked back a bit and lowered his head. "Hello, is someone there? Pulse to Hope?" Ayla said while waving out a hand in front of him. _Is he in a trance of some sorts? _She wondered.

One.

Two.

Three.

Nothing happened.

"Grh, I'll knock some sense right into your—AAAAH!" Ayla screamed as a hand grabbed her ankle and dragged her back on the floor. She turned around to see who or what that was dragging her, and it was the Lady in Red, smiling widely with her hair covering her most of her right face and her ruby red eyes glinting dangerously.

"Help!" she screamed, but Hope didn't listen. She kicked around and tried to get the Lady on her face. "Are you listening to me?!" she yelled again, but still, he didn't response as if placed in some kind of weird trance. "And you," she turned around to the grinning Lady. "Go away!"

Ayla casted away an artificial spell, but the Lady simply moved her head out of the way, narrowly missing her hair. The Lady's grin widened and a distorted laughter escaped her. "Get your hands off me!" she yelled again and tried to cast another spell, but the painting simply evaded it.

_You're pretty talented, huh..._

The Lady dragged her deeper and deeper into the shadows until almost nothing is seen in the darkness. The only things that are heard were the Lady's laughter and sounds of a frame dragged on the ground, that is, until something caught her attention.

"Stay away from her!"

Ayla shot her head up to the source of the voice and saw that it was Hope. He looked like he was free from a paralysis of some sorts, probably the weird trance he just got into. "Mine," the Lady hissed, banging her fist on the floor. "Mine! Mine! Mine! MIIINEE!" the painting shrieked, now trying to get her hands on Ayla's suit to steal her rose.

Seemingly angered, Hope waved out the crowbar he was holding and swung it across the Lady's face, hitting her in her eyes as red liquid sprayed out. Her hands were now off Ayla's ankle and she was retreating. Ayla instantly stood up and kicked the painting on her face after regaining her balance.

"GRAAAAH!" the Lady in Red screeched and roughly wiped off the red liquid that was cascading down her face and obscuring her vision. "Die!" Hope yelled and stabbed her on her face repeatedly, spraying red liquid all over the floor. Ayla just backed away until she hit the wall and took out her rose to make sure that it was completely unharmed.

Sighing in relief now that the Lady in Red is dead, Ayla slowly approached Hope who was tossing the paint-stained crowbar away. She looked to the floor and saw the Lady in Red's face which was horribly smashed in, buckets of red liquid spilling out of her head and forming a puddle.

"Ayla..." he began, looking at her without emptiness in his eyes. "I'm sorry for leaving you..."

Ayla felt as if paralyzed. She just stood there, not saying a thing and only lowering her head. "No... Nothing is even wrong with that..." she muttered to herself, hoping that he didn't hear it. "It's my fault," he said, approaching her. "I'm not supposed to leave you to get dragged by the Lady."

"It's not your fault," she retorted, looking at him in the eyes. "It appears that you were placed in some kind of paralysis or trance."

"Paralysis, huh..." Hope chuckled. "You're saying that I was frozen in place."

"Sort of." Ayla said. "You didn't answer my question. You didn't even say a thing. You made me worry that something wrong might happen to you." He didn't say anything at her sentence, but he only inched closer to her. "You know..." he said, unable to take his eyes off her. "I always wanted to do something, ever since I met you..."

Ayla's breath hitched when their lips met—again. _He's been doing it twice in a day... _she thought, but didn't pull away otherwise. _Weird. Weird, weird, weird, weird... _she mentally berated herself. Feeling ashamed of not responding, she simply kissed back and shyly wrapped her arms around his neck.

After a while, they pulled away, a faint red tinge on their cheeks. "Sorry..." Hope said, looking away. "There was no need to apologize." Ayla replied. "Besides, it's like no one is watching." She added with a giggle. "And you promised." He added as well. "I can break it anytime if necessary." She retorted with a faint laugh. "Don't say things like that. Shall we move on?"

"Okay," she said with a smile. He smiled back at her, "Let's get going."

They returned to the door at the end of the hallway. "Let's go." Ayla said and opened the door. Behind it was a world entirely made of crayon, and it appeared that this place was anything out of the ordinary. When they fully entered, the door slammed shut behind them and disappeared of existence.

"I'm right," Hope said, examining a nearby flower patch. "There's no going back."

"We'll find a way out," Ayla said. "Why not start with... that house?" she pointed at an upside down house in the distance. "Let's." he said and they walked down the brick path heading to the house. They entered it, and saw nothing inside.

"There's nothing here." she said. "Wait," he stopped her from getting out of the house. "Something's out there." He walked to the door and peeked outside. "What's—" Ayla was cut when Hope grabbed her wrist and rounded a corner, hiding behind a wall while using a hand to cover her mouth. She squirmed a bit, but stopped when she heard footsteps resonating.

"Shh," Hope shushed, pulling her closer to him and peeked a bit out. A short shadow was seen on the wall and it appeared that the person—whoever that is, was holding a knife.

"Huh, they're not here." A familiar voice said. "Do you think they're here, Isa?" the person questioned, and came into view. It was Mary, her dark blue eyes scanning her surroundings. Ayla trembled a bit and looked away. _She's following us... _she thought in fear, and looked back at Mary.

"Oooh, so they had been here," Mary chimed with a giggle. "Oh Hope, Ayla~ Where are you? I know you're here~" she said in a sing-song voice and looked around. "Oh, so now we're playing hide-and-seek. Okay, you hide and I'll seek~ right, Isa?" she was talking to a doll she was hugging; it was holding her rose and nodded in reply.

Mary turned her heels and walked out of the house, her shadow slowly disappearing out of sight. Hope's hand loosened around Ayla's mouth and both of them sighed in relief. "Thank goodness she didn't hear us." She said in relief, but part of her wasn't since Mary was still up and alive and was looking for them—hunting them down, precisely.

"She's not going to kill us... right?" Ayla said and looked down on her rose that she was holding all the time. "I'll make sure she doesn't." Hope assured, and led her outside to search for anyone—especially Mary.

_Mary... you're still alive. But if you actually wanted to make us suffer... do as you like. I... _we're _not afraid of you. We'll destroy you, somehow._

* * *

**A/N: I'm talking nonsense and laughing like crazy these days. Why? Why?! Why is this happening to me?!**

**I think... I need some reviews to keep me company in here... so lonely...**

**~ Crystal**


	21. Chapter 13: Messages for the Dearest

Vanille sighed. She had never seen something this weird her whole life. And now they were in this Sketchbook thingy and they could never get out. Besides, Fang's staff was broken, so she offered her knife, but the older woman refused. She reasoned, "What if you got hurt and you had no one with you?"

"I wonder where we're going, Fang." She pouted. "That 'death note' thingy said 'There is no escape. There is no reason'. It scared me." Fang sighed in reply and looked down at her. "Grh. That note was kinda freaky. I hope we could get outta this art hell and go back home in time." She said. "Besides, we won't last long here."

Vanille's eyes shot open, "Fang!"

Fang laughed back and looked to the horizon. "Just kidding, 'Nille." She said, but then gets serious again. "We will live, and we will survive. I'll make sure of it. And we have to." Vanille nodded, and her expression fell into an unhappy frown. "I wanna go home." She whined.

"No whining," Fang reminded, stopping in her tracks. "We're not gonna die easy, right? We're like... say, we're like that we were invincible! Yeah, I think 'invincible' was the correct word!" she said with a light laugh. Vanille knew that her friend was trying to cheer her up, so she smiled back in reply. "Okay, okay." She said, giggling a bit. "But under one condition."

"And that is?" "I need a break."

"Fine then, just sit down on the ground. Never mind if it's dusty or stuff." Fang said and sat down on the ground. Vanille followed, and sighed a bit. She leaned back on her hands and looked at the dark sky.

_Fabricated World was creepy. I really wished that we shouldn't have gone to the Guertena Art Gallery at all. This wasn't even supposed to happen. We don't deserve this._

_I'm not blaming Fang for this. I was the one that practically dragged her to the art gallery. Oh really, what's wrong with me?! I'm blaming myself for all that happened. First we were alone, then we were separated from Lightning, and then our lives were tied to a rose. A mere rose._

_Poor Fang, she didn't deserve all this. We shared the rose. And if I died, so will she. I hate myself for bringing both of us into this condition. I really hate myself._

* * *

Lightning banged her head to a wall in frustration. Someone was throwing things at her, but she couldn't see who it is. Growling at the doll thrown at her, she kicked it away as it tumbled down the road. It appears that the doll was stuffed with some pebbles, and it hurt. A petal was lost at it.

"Serah, Serah, Serah... where are you anyway?" she questioned no one but herself, and received silence as the response. No one replied, so she shrugged. Lightning decided to examine more of the remains of a house, and found blood splattered everywhere. She feared it was Serah's, and upon closer inspection, it was just mere paint. She sighed in relief.

_Does this mean that Serah had just burned down a _house? She thought, and looked to the sky. A crayon crow passed by and squawked. It left anyway.

Lightning felt a presence behind her and turned around quickly. No one was around, but she felt that someone was following her. She shrugged and started to walk north when she heard something cracking, then breaking. She decided to investigate the source and saw a large hole on the brick path in the Butterfly Park.

Lightning looked down, but it was way too dark to see. Again, she felt a presence behind her, but before she could react, the person behind her shoved her into the pit. The last thing she saw was the wide smile of a child, looking down at her and waving a red rose around before she blacked out.

_Serah, where are you? I hoped very much that you wouldn't die here. We will never see each other again, if so. But... I don't want it. I wanted to see you with my own eyes. I wanted to say sorry for leaving you. But it appears that this isn't my lucky day and someone shoved me here, apparently a child._

_Who could that child be? She looked... suspicious._

* * *

Noel and Serah grew more and more frustrated the further they went into the Sketchbook world. Going around wasn't helping at all, and there was nothing else they could take care now that the Black House is gone forever.

They had spotted a vase full of water, but it was useless that their roses weren't damaged even a single bit. Somehow, they had lost the small Gallery Key found from the tulip near the large white building. Noel suggested looking for it, but the search was useless. And Lightning wasn't around either.

They decided to take a break near the upside down house. "It's useless," Noel complained, pacing around the area as Serah sat down on the ground. "There was nothing here! And the Gallery Key is gone!" he yelled in frustration. Serah shook her head at it, "No! There must be something we could do here!"

"And that is?" Noel's question made her look away and sigh. Nothing was around here, even Lightning. She had decided to give up for the search, but she couldn't just give up finding her sister. "Let's investigate the Sketchbook again, Noel. Perhaps we could have missed something around here."

"Right..." Noel muttered, looking to the horizon. It was nighttime already in the Sketchbook. Something suddenly crashed in the distance, and the Serah jolted up on her feet. "What was that?!" she asked, but Noel just replied her with an 'I don't know'. Both of them ran to the source, and saw that something had just crashed near the lake.

It was a stone that looked like a meteorite or something. Both moved it carefully to the side, and it revealed a large crater on the ground. "Looks like we can bust this." Serah said. "Way too hard to do empty-handed, though."

"We have to find something to break this section of the ground." Noel said, and started looking for things. He spotted something in the distance and ran over to it, before returning back with a hammer in hand. He smashed it to the ground and the crayon path broke, revealing a deep abyss inside. Luckily, a rope ladder is there.

They went down the pit carefully, and found themselves in an underground room. Something shook and a swish was heard above. "What was that?" Serah said, and looked up. The rope ladder then fell to the ground, and when they looked up, they saw a silhouette of a child, who then closes the hole granting access into the room they were in by drawing a lid over it.

"HEY!" Noel yelled in case the child heard his voice. "Open up!"

No one responded, and the child never came back. "That kid... it looks like that she was the one who made the Sketchbook!" Serah realized, pounding her fists on the stone wall. "What?! How could you come up with that opinion?!" Noel asks, perhaps a bit too loud. "She drew a lid over the hole and it closes by itself! That would make sense!" she replied.

"Right. We have to find a way outta here." Noel said.

_Huh. We're trapped here right now, sis. Where could you be? I wanted to see you again. After all those time without you, I grew more and more worried for your well-being. You couldn't just do something stupid that might kill you!_

_If you had any troubles, don't just charge through the room and go kill every artwork there. You'll just get yourself doomed into a serious matter! Dying wasn't the option here!_

_Please stay alive!_

* * *

"Wait there!"

Hope whispered loudly and dragged Ayla behind him to hide between the trees. "What now?!" Ayla said, but he told her to keep quiet as Mary came into view.

The girl hummed merrily to herself and kneeled beside a hole on the ground. She took out her knife, cut something inside the hole and took out a pink crayon, drawing a circle with it, coloring it in and it became a lid covering the hole. "Hee hee~!" she giggled to herself and pocketed the crayon, and pulled out a red rose.

"Someone was here." Hope said, and continued observing the scene. A saddened smile appeared in Mary's expression as she gently patted the petals of the rose. "It's a gift for you, big sis. I hoped you like it." She said. She then frowned angrily, and pocketed the rose before walking away.

Thinking it was safe already, the two came out of hiding. "She stole someone's rose. Who could that be?" Ayla said. Hope just shrugged, "But we have to find them if there was anyone trapped here."

She looked in the distance and saw two silhouettes walking side-by-side while holding hands. They looked like that they were lost in the Sketchbook, just like them. "H-Hey!" she yelled, waving her hands in the air to catch their attention. "Over here!"

The two people looked like they heard her and looked at each other, before running towards them quickly. "See? They're people!"

"Really, now?! I don't think they're actual people!" the dark-haired woman said to the shorter redhead beside her. "I doubt that they're even one!" the redhead yelled back at the woman.

Shrugging, Ayla rushed to them when they are halfway to her. "W-Who're you?! You're not... one of the monsters inside the gallery, r-right?!" the redhead said, pointing a knife at her. Shocked, Ayla raised her hands in a surrendering manner and shook her head no, "I wasn't! Really!"

"Drop it, 'Nille!" the dark-haired woman yelled at her companion, who hid the knife behind her back and cowering behind her. "Sorry for her misbehavior." The woman apologized. She extended out a hand for her to shake, "The name's Fang."

Ayla took Fang's hand and shook it in a formal manner, "Ayla. I'm a guide from the art gallery." She introduced herself with a smile. "And this is—" Fang cut herself off and shook her arm a bit, trying to pry the clinging redhead off her. "Get off, wouldn't you? Look, I'm sorry for yelling. But at least you have to introduce yourself." She said.

The redhead hesitantly backed away from Fang, and said in a cheerful tone, "Hi... I'm Vanille! Nice to meet you!" Vanille said with a smile on her face. "Who are you with?" she asked. "Um..." Ayla said in a hesitant tone. "I'm with... wait, what?!"

She started to look around, trying to find someone, but there was nobody around. "HOPE!" she called out as loud as she could, but there was no one around. "Hope? Sounds familiar." Fang said, and began to search for anyone. Ayla nodded abruptly, "Yeah, yeah. The whole Academia knew him." She replied, and walked away.

She heard Vanille mouthing an 'Oh' and the two followed her around. When Ayla saw a figure in the distance, she rushed over to the figure. "Why did you leave on your own?! You're not supposed to wander off like that! You know that something terrible happened to you the last time you were like this!" she yelled at Hope, not caring about Fang and Vanille seeing her.

"I'm sorry, Ayla. I saw something glimmer in the distance, and thought that it was something important... it turns out to be a key someone dropped, though." He replied, and turned around to show her the key. "Maybe it opens the white two-storey building over there. We tried to open it, but turns out we couldn't." Vanille said, pointing to a large building that resembled the true Guertena gallery.

"You're real people, aren't you?" Hope questioned after a few seconds of eerie silence. Ayla smacked him on the arm and let out a nervous laughter. "Sorry, it looks like he was a bit paranoid or something. Anyway, this is Fang and Vanille." She said, motioning to the two girls.

Hope chuckled and looked away, "I see."

They walked to the building and tried the key on the door. They opened it and thought that it would be the exit out of the Fabricated World, but all that she saw was a white wall and a staircase leading to the second floor. "Seems like this isn't the exit." Fang said, looking around.

They headed to the only staircase, and everyone widened their eyes in horror at the crude drawings on the white wall. "M-Mary! It can't be!" Ayla exclaimed, starting to have a panic attack at the drawings. "Who's Mary?" Vanille asked, not wanting to look at the drawings.

"She was a girl. A painting. If you saw her, don't ever trust her. She was one of the gallery's inhabitants." Hope replied. "She had wide blue eyes, messy, long blonde hair and green clothes on. Remember her description if you don't want to be harmed." Ayla added.

The drawings on the wall were quite creepy, but gory at the same time. The first picture was one of Ayla with empty eye sockets leaking blood, clothes drenched in crimson. The second was of Hope, littered with multiple stab wounds.

The third was of Fang, her mouth leaking so much blood that it looked like she died out of suffocation on her own blood. The fourth was Vanille, an empty hole in her chest leaking blood, and the same liquid dripped from her eyes to her chest.

And the last two pictures, were of Mary with bloodstained hands, holding her bloody palette knife, laughing with glee and of a little doll holding three roses; one violet, one white and the other burgundy, all with ripped petals. The doll itself was smiling widely as if enjoying seeing someone suffer. A note was scribbled in crimson on the floor, saying;

_Why did you do this to me? All I wanna do is play..._

Not wanting to see the drawings anymore, Fang examined the box under the drawing of Mary. She opened it and an array of colorful symbols appeared, spiraling in the air before vanishing. Inside the box were a little mirror and a note saying 'You opened the Pandora's Box!'

"So what? We made the Sketchbook fall into utter chaos or something?" she said with annoyance evident in her tone and walked first down the stairs. Hope and Vanille left the room after Fang, and Ayla spared the drawings a last glance. Her fists unconsciously balled, and she tried to resist herself from exploding in fury. She went down the stairs shortly.

Little did she know, a grinning figure watched them from behind the curtains at the end of the hallway. The figure clapped joyfully and followed them down the stairs.

_Finally. Two real people are actually out here. I felt uneasy anyway. Was it Mary, trailing behind us and spying on us? Hmph. We didn't know. But we have to escape from the Fabricated World. We will escape._

_So... _my dear Mary_. Have you been following us? We're not shocked of it. Come, come. You can follow us everywhere... anywhere... to the ends of Pulse... but we know one thing that fate had in store for you. We all knew how this will end, despite your attempts to become a real human._

_You are _dead.

* * *

**A/N: Done. I'll type up more tomorrow. Bye.**

**~ Crystal**


	22. Chapter 14: Her Revenge

**A/N: YEAAAHH, I'M BACK!**

**I tried to find a song that fits this chapter and I found one though it wasn't on the OST list of Final Fantasy XIII-2.**

**I recommend you to play 'Garry's Theme - Blind Alley -' from the list of Ib OST for the event that took place under the sunny spot of the Sketchbook.**

**Disclaimer: 'Blind Alley' does not belong to me. Copyright belongs to Kouri.**

* * *

When they came out of the Sketchbook Gallery, everything changed. It looked much more confusing than before. It looked like there were more things scattered around.

"We have to split up. Perhaps these changes refer to a new key to open something." Hope said. "Ready to roll." Fang said and walked away with Vanille trailing behind her. "They're a bit weird," Ayla said as they walked away to investigate things. "I don't see any roses."

"Maybe they didn't have one." Hope replied. "Anything could happen here."

They stopped near a sign. Next to it was a large, floating mouth that was grinning and baring its sharp teeth and forked tongue. It looked much like the Lips they met at the very beginning. "That mouth was never there. Maybe it was referring to something?" Ayla said, and walked to the sign right in front of it. A blue cat face is drawn behind it, and she was very sure that it was never there.

"Okay. A blue cat." She said and scribbled a note on the memo. "Let's go."

They walked some more down a familiar brick path and ended in the Butterfly Park. "Look," Hope pointed to an orange butterfly. "It's new." He used his rose to lure it near him. The butterfly fluttered and landed gently on the rose. He examined it, and saw a pair of piercing red eyes on its wing.

"I felt like we're being watched. Just look at the eyes... it made me nervous." Ayla said as the butterfly fluttered away. "Probably Mary is playing tricks on us."

Just near the butterfly park, there was a large blue house. Hope tried to open the door, but it was covered in thick ice. It was useless to get rid of it unless they had something to melt it. Then he remembered the little mirror in Fang's possession.

When he turned around, instead of Ayla looking for him, she was the one that was missing. After searching her for a while, he saw her looking up to the sky under a sunlit spot at the path leading to the house with the frozen door. He followed her gaze, and noticed that she was staring at several stars surrounding a sun.

Even though it was weird that a technically nonexistent sun appeared together with stars, he knew that something was bothering her. "I miss you..." Ayla said lowly, still keeping her eyes on the stars. "Why can't you come back... and why did you have to... go...?"

_She was referring to someone. Who could that be? _Hope thought while approaching her. "Hey," he called out. She jerked, startled and lowered her head. "Are you alright?" he asked again, and she answered with something incomprehensible. The only sentences he could make out were 'Hurt all over', 'I don't want you to leave' and 'It's too soon'.

"Ayla," he called out again, and finally she gave a hum of response. "Sorry, I was just... zoning out." She said and looked back to the stars. _She seems to be staring intently at the stars... _he thought again when something clicked in his head. _That's right. Her last name was 'Stargazer', so it could probably be that she took at interest at stargazing..._

"I see you liked stargazing," he began. "That refers to your last name, huh?"

Ayla nodded in reply. "They were just so... beautiful." She said with a sigh. "Even if they were fake in the Sketchbook, I still liked them. I often did this with my—" she frowned. "No." she said sharply and shook her head. "Your who? A family?" Hope decided to ask. "Please, don't make me remember." She said with the slightest of smiles tugging at her lips. She looked... sad. "I don't want to remember... no."

"Then I'm not going to ask." He said. "Thanks." "Your welcome."

"Hey!" Someone called out to them. It was Vanille, waving her hands in the air while holding a burgundy rose. Beside her was Fang, who was rubbing her head as if something had just got thrown at her. "What's wrong with Fang?" Ayla asked.

"That? Someone threw a doll at me. Can you give that thing to me, 'Nille?" Fang replied and Vanille gave her a doll. It was the very same, disturbing blue dolls that everyone had seen along the journey. "O-Okay, this is the last doll... n-no more dolls... p-please..." Ayla stammered, looking away from the rag thing.

Hope grabbed it and shook it around. He tore its stomach open and saw several pebbles stuffed inside and a piece of letter. "Ouch, no wonder it hurts." He heard Fang speak, but he ignored her and unfolded the paint-stained paper.

**_I'M WAITING FOR YOU ALL, IN THE T_**

"..." he was speechless at the piece of letter. Some of the letters were scribbled out, but he was very sure that the one sending the letter must be Mary. That painting.

He threw the doll away in frustration. Ayla heard the distant thumping and stopped looking away from the doll. "It said 'I'm waiting'." Hope said. "Okay... so what about the house with the frozen door? Did you see anything different while looking around?" she asked Fang and Vanille.

"Um... okay?" Vanille said and reached into her pocket for a memo. "A spiral on the bulletin board, a heart on the pink house's door, a moon on the pool, stars along the brick path. That's it. What about you?" she asked while tilting her head a bit to the side.

"A cat's face behind a sign, a spiral sun near a house with a frozen door, and a butterfly with an eye on it." Hope replied. "And let me remind you about the mirror. Do you have it?" Fang shook her head no, "Unfortunately, it broke. I dropped it accidentally." She said with a shrug.

"But we still have a Manadrive. Right?" Ayla said, and Hope nodded in acknowledgement. They went back to the house and melted the door. Inside was a square grid of some sorts, with an array of buttons corresponding to the symbols they saw in the Sketchbook. A poster was on the opposite wall, showing the symbols arranged in a spiral.

"It looks like we have to decipher what this means..." Ayla said. "The buttons are arranged in a square grid. What else looks like a square grid?"

Vanille raised a hand, "The Sketchbook itself! We have to remember in which parts of the Sketchbook we saw the new symbols!" Hope nodded, "And we have to begin from the 'Start' point on the poster and ends in the middle of the spiral."

After some minutes of thinking and re-checking around, they solved the puzzle and a Plastic Key appeared in the middle of the spiral. "I need a break." Ayla said, sitting down beneath the poster and leaning against the wall, Hope following next. "So," Fang said, beginning a conversation. "How did you get in here?"

"We didn't know," Hope replied. "It's just... we were experiencing weird things. Like the Lady in Blue painting."

"At first he said that the Lady blinked," Ayla added, "But I thought Hope was just paranoid. So I brushed it off... but turns out it was true that the Lady _actually _blinked. Then the lights went out, we jumped in the big floor painting... and here we are, stuck."

Silence filled the whole room. "Etro," Fang suddenly said, smacking a hand against her forehead. "How could we have been so careless?! I should've realized it from so long ago!" Vanille raised an eyebrow, "What did we do?"

"Remember that big painting? The _one that was very impressive in size? An abstract one?"_

"The 'Fabricated World' painting?" Vanille said. "Right! We were going around the gallery and found that painting. After I read out its name, the lights just went out and everyone disappeared." She said in remembrance. "That was what that exactly happened to us at the beginning," Hope said. "The lights went out and before we knew it, the gallery was empty."

"Then... we..." Both Fang and Vanille looked at each other in horror. "_I was the trigger to all this! _I trapped people with me just by... reading out the plaque! I wish I haven't done that at all!" Vanille said in panic at the truth. "We met someone along the way. Her name was Lightning. She said she was looking for her sister. But we ended up being separated after some time." Fang explained.

"If the 'Fabricated World' is the trigger..." Ayla mumbled. "... then it has to be the exit as well! Vanille, you genius! What we have to do now is to find that painting and jump inside!"

"Really?" Vanille said, confused. "I-I really don't know. The exit is at the beginning after all this time!"

"Then we have to go now and exit as fast as possible." Hope said. "I know that the other gallery's halls are inside the Pink House."

With new spirits, they went outside the house they were in and headed to the pink one. There are two notes stuck on the wall, saying 'The only exit' and 'The Pink Key is always kept in the Toy Box'.

Ignoring the locked house, they headed north and saw a white house. "I'm aware that the Toy Box is inside." Hope said. "Fang, Vanille, you have to wait here. We have to confront Mary one last time, and you will be here if we needed help. Okay? Just stand by here—we'll come back, I promise." Ayla said. At first Vanille wanted to protest, but Fang brushed it off and told her that they have to wait here.

Hope unlocked the door, and they took deep breaths before bracing themselves to go inside. Shockingly, the room was empty with nothing other than a door and a blue toy box in the middle of the north wall. They approached it and peeked inside. "They said the key is here. But there's nothing inside." He said. "Like we'll have to dig through this thing. It was twice as big as me." Ayla said.

"Wanna see closer?"

Startled, the two turned around in a flash to see a grinning Mary. "Ma—Uwaaaahh!" Ayla tried to call out, but the girl shoved her first into the Toy Box. Her screams grew more and more distant until nothing was heard. "You!" Hope accused the painting. "You're going to pay for that!"

"Oh reeeaaalllyyy?" Mary put her hands behind her back and bowed a bit to the front. "_You're _the one that's gonna pay, right?" her expression turned aggressive. "YOU KILLED MY FRIEEENDD! MY SISTEEEEERRR!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and launched herself forward, stabbing him with her palette knife.

The knife struck him on his lower abdomen and knocked him over to the edge of the Toy Box. He grunted at the pain, but there was no time to check on his rose as he was dangling for his life there. He moved a hand over the bleeding wound to try and stop the blood, but to no avail. He decided to hold onto the edge with both hands while trying to bear with the pain.

A statue appeared beside Mary and looked down at him. "Does that hurt?! DOES THAT HURT?!" the painting yelled, anguished.

"IT HURTS SO MUCH MORE SEEING YOU KILL MY SISTER!" She shrieked as the statue slapped his right hand to tip his balance. Hope was now just dangling with one hand. "DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!" Mary screamed with tears of anger cascading down her cheeks as she slapped his other hand off and making him plummet into the darkness.


	23. Chapter 15: Horrors of a Confession

**A/N: You know, I'm having middle exams without having the chance to put changes on my bio, so sorry!**

**This was supposed to be done ages ago, but I don't have the quota to upload it—it ran out of usage time just when the exams happened the next day. So just enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Hope just groaned.

It hurts all over.

The rough landing had knocked the air out of him and forced him to black out. He looked at the floor and inspected the patterns. There was a drawing of a doll, a patch of roses, a headless mannequin sitting down, a mannequin head, and so much more. There were also a lot of toys scattered about.

But his main attention is, why did the artworks move into the Toy Box?

Some Lady portraits were on the wall, and there were statues, mannequin heads and dolls. The knife-wielding ones of course. _Mary must've set this up. _He thought. Something clicked inside his head, and he knew he must find Ayla. Besides, she fell first, so her current whereabouts are unknown.

Hope searched around the massive Toy Box and found Ayla lying on her stomach. She was just lying there, not moving an inch... and a lot of mannequin heads are around her. Some were crying, some were slightly cracked, and some were grinning.

... and they were all just... staring down on her.

Not wanting to doom himself by killing and damaging more of Mary's 'friends' and 'family', he moved the mannequin heads aside gently, careful not to drop them. When they were all set aside, he kneeled next to her and shook her gently.

"Mm?" Ayla mumbled and shook a while before raising her head up. "... You okay? I thought I took a hit to the head." she asked, totally uncaring about the mannequin heads surrounding her. "I'm fine." Hope said; or actually, lied.

He could slightly see the blood that managed to seep out to the surface of his jacket. But it was painless as if nothing had happened to it at all. Oh, he certainly hoped that she didn't see it.

"Hope?"

Too late.

"What the heck happened to you?!" As if on cue, Ayla shot her eyes open and instantly sat up. "Mary." He gave her a simple answer. "Why didn't you tell me if you're bleeding? You could've died!" she ran a hand through her hair in frustration.

"Ayla, stop." He said calmly and made eye contact with her. _Usually this works, _he shrugged mentally. "It doesn't hurt, okay? I'm fine. Really." Ayla raised an eyebrow, "Then where is your rose?" _That's a completely logical question, _Hope thought and reached a hand into his pocket.

Nothing was inside.

He froze.

"Uh..." he said nervously, unsure of what her response might be. _It might be in the other one. _He tried to calm himself down and tried to find the flower in his other pocket, but the results are the same. Nothing of rose around. "... I think I lost it after falling in here."

"Then we must find it." Ayla said and stood up, beginning the search.

* * *

"I wonder what could've happened to them."

Vanille walked around the front lawn of the house. She was certainly worried that the pair wouldn't come back in time. _What if Mary got them? What if they were hurt? And even worse... what if they died when we couldn't save them? _She thought, fear and panic welling up inside her.

"Hey 'Nille," she heard Fang calling out to her. "Don't worry too much. They promised that they will return." She assured. "Alright, then..." Vanille said and tried to keep her worry down just for a while.

_They'll come back... will they?_

* * *

For the next minutes of searching, the rose wasn't around. All that was around the place are toys, a lot of them, and several artworks. Ayla was a hundred percent positive that Hope's rose wasn't missing—it was stolen from him.

"Nothing was here, okay! It was useless to search..." Ayla said in frustration as she looked behind the curtains in the room. It wasn't hid in the windowsill—she was sure of it. "We've been looking for a long time and we found nothing..."

"Ayla, see the large dolls on that staircase?" Hope called out. She looked at the direction he was pointing and saw two dolls next to each other, one with a yellow dress while the other had a pink one on. "I tried pushing them, but they won't budge. I guess we have to take something first so they let us to pass."

Ayla hummed in agreement and the search continued. Hope wandered around the massive Toy Box, looking behind every statues, under every toys scattered about and still found nothing, until...

"Hey, found something." Ayla said south of him, waving out a pink key made of crayon. "I think this opens the way to the fake gallery's halls." He approached her and looked at the pink key. "But the question is, how can we get out now?" he said, looking up the ceiling but there is nothing except for darkness beyond.

Ayla shrugged, pocketing the key. "Maybe that stairs over there... but I see that the dolls haven't moved an inch yet." She said. The lights suddenly blinked, making them jump in shock. "What was that?!" she said when the lights went out, looking around in case of any living artworks.

"I don't know. Be ready to run." He said, taking her hand in his. Several seconds passed in silence. The room was dead quiet... until creaking sounded. His breath stopped as the creaking continued. It was hard to see in the darkness—it wasn't very dark, but he couldn't see clearly either. Footsteps sounded around them, like the tapping of someone wearing... heels.

_Death of the Individual... the statues. _He thought. And then a sickening sound of something slashing a wall. The disturbing dolls. Banging on the window and on the walls.

Glass cracking.

Growling.

Something dragging on the floor.

_Three... Two—_

"WAAAAAHH!"

Hope jerked in shock at Ayla's scream as artworks appeared out of the darkness and closed in on them. Glass shattered and something dropped to the floor, the window breaking as the Lady in Blue broke inside and the wall cracked and crumbled. "No way!" Ayla yelled, trying to find a way to escape the artworks around them, but to no avail.

"We're trapped!" he said when he heard several dolls giggling with glee. "Give..." The Lady in Green spoke in a raspy voice beside a mannequin head, reaching out her hand, long hair spilling out of the frame and covering her green eyes. "Give... Giiiveeee... GGHIIIIVEEEE!" the painting woman continued to say, a manic grin on her face.

"We have to find a way out if we... don't want to die yet..." Ayla said, fear evident in her tone. Luckily, the headless statues couldn't see well enough—only hearing on instinct, since they were... yes, headless. One of them reached out both hands with a growl, stopping inches away from her face. He could feel her breath stop at the statue's gesture—but then it retracted its clawed hands.

Hope noticed a gap between a yellow statue and another blue one. "When I say run..." he said, gripping her hand tighter.

"RUN!"

The two of them ran past the artworks, barely missing a slash from the yellow-dressed statue. Shrieks, growls and roars erupted from all around as the artworks chased madly behind them. The Lady in Yellow broke the wall and chased after them—slowly, but surely; madness evident in glowing gold eyes. Dolls chased after them, clinging on the statues' ankles to speed up.

One of the bigger dolls threw a cleaver their way. "Duck!" Hope commanded and both of them ducked in time as the cleaver soared past them, stabbing the opposite wall. He looked around for an exit and saw that the giant dolls had moved aside. "There! We have to make a run for it!" he yelled, dragging Ayla behind him to the stairs.

"GIVE MEEEEE!" The Lady in Blue suddenly appeared out of nowhere, blocking access to the stairs. The painting lady shoved herself forwards and reached out her hands, trying to grab Ayla's rose, but they managed to avoid it and ran clockwise around her, getting behind her frame and shoving it down to trap her back inside the canvas before jumping to the stairs and running up as fast as they could, slamming the door at the top of the stairs before the statues reached them.

Banging and hissing sounded on the door along with shrieking and screeching. Hope saw a key some distance away. "Take the key!" he commanded to Ayla and she grabbed the key quickly, locking the door as the banging continued. "They can't break down doors, right?" she said, panting.

He released his hold on the wooden door, "I don't think so."

"Oh, thank the Maker..." she sighed in relief and fell to her knees. "Right, at least we made it." He said, sitting down as well. Ayla laughed nervously, "That was the _wors_t chase sequence. _Ever." _She said, emphasizing the 'ever'. "They won't do serious harm if they attacked us individually," Hope theorized, "But if the ganged up on us, it would be like a nightmare."

"I think the statues just moved around randomly, since they're all headless." Ayla said. "And the Painting Ladies can't open doors. We could just exploit their weaknesses."

"The mannequin heads are very slow." Hope said. "But the dolls were the most dangerous of all. They were like a... 'memory wiping crew', since if you stare into its eyes too long you'll feel like you're forgetting something."

"Alright, enough with the theories," Ayla laughed. "We still had a rose to find."

"Let's."

* * *

"Fang, should we go inside and look for them?" Vanille yawned, clearly bored of just waiting outside. The boredom was killing her, and her worry hadn't faded yet.

"Guess so." Fang shrugged, standing up. They had been sitting at the front lawn of the White House for a long time, probably almost an hour or so. The older woman went around and stopped dead when she saw something ahead, "Stupid me! I should've noticed this a long time ago! Damn myself!"

Vanille jerked up at the next stream of cursing and jogged behind the house. "Fang, wha—" her mouth dropped open. "What the..."

There was a door that went unnoticed behind the house.

"We should've gone inside from ages ago!" Fang yelled in frustration, banging her fist on the door. "Let's just go inside!"

* * *

Ayla jumped back slightly when a bang sounded. "Someone's outside..."

"I don't think it's from here." Hope said. He walked to the other door next to the one they locked and opened it. "It comes from here." Ayla stood up and looked at what's inside the door. There was a small hallway with several drawings on the walls, a table with an broken vase on it and strangely, a trashcan. It was like a rooms in a house of some sorts—Mary's?

The other door at the end of the room swung open and slammed to the wall as if someone was breaking inside. The two froze in place, afraid that it might be the artworks they despised—but it ended when someone peeked inside. "Va-Vanille?" Ayla said at the redhead who had seemingly barged inside.

Vanille looked back at her. A bright smile spread across her face, "Ayla! You're all right!" the younger girl beamed with excitement and nearly tackled her to the floor, hugging her while giggling. Ayla smiled at her behavior, ruffling her hair. "Nice to see ya again." Fang appeared at the doorway, smirking slightly when walking inside.

"How could you get here?" Hope asked, seemingly not getting on what floor of a house they were in. "From that door, silly!" Vanille giggled. "That door leads to the main area of the Sketchbook. Did you find the Pink Key?"

Ayla reached a hand into her pocket and took out the crayon-based key. "You could bring it, since we still had something to take care of." She said, tossing it to Fang who caught it. "Why? What happened?" she asked. "Something we never expected." Ayla replied. Hope looked down at her, and sighed.

"I lost my rose." He confessed loudly.


End file.
